A Sierra Vista couple with a long history of being prosecuted for writing bad checks will be back in court later this month for allegedly bilking yet another business owner.
Lawrence Wayne Fairfield and his wife Ann Marie are accused of presenting a check to Mr. Shed, a longtime business in Huachuca City, knowing the funds were not available. The custom-made shed was delivered before the Jan. 24 check bounced and the couple made no further payments.
The couple are charged with fraudulent schemes, theft by obtaining service without payment, and criminal simulation based on an investigation by Officer Miriam Bear of the Huachuca City Police Department. It is not the first time the two have been convicted of offenses related to bad checks in Cochise or Pima counties, as noted in the officer’s report.
Bear’s investigation took several months while she obtained various bank records to present the matter to the Cochise County Attorney’s Office for felony prosecution. The charging decision was made by Michael Powell, a deputy county attorney.
The theft and fraudulent schemes are common charges in bad check cases. However, Powell has included one count against each defendant for criminal simulation, a Class 6 felony for a person who “makes, alters, or presents or offers…any object so that it appears to have an antiquity, rarity, source, authorship or value that it does not in fact possess” if done with the intent to defraud.
The couple have been ordered to appear for a preliminary hearing at the Sierra Vista Justice Court in a few weeks.
One issue the judge assigned to the new case against Lawrence Fairfield will be made aware of is the fact Lawrence, 57, admitted in February 2021 to trafficking in stolen property, a Class 3 felony. But instead of going to jail or prison, he was accepted into a diversion program which required him to remain crime-free for one year.
At the end of the one year, Lawrence’s guilty plea would be withdrawn and the felony charge against him dismissed with prejudice, meaning it could not be refiled. That is what occurred on Feb. 9 of this year, according to court records.
But although the bad check was written two weeks earlier, the theft report was not filed until later.
Ann Fairfield, 55, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to theft in another bad check case. She was ordered to make payments to the court but the judge was notified in March that Ann’s payment plan was in delinquent status.
Court records show Ann Fairfield also pleaded guilty in February 2017 to issuing a bad check to a local business in February 2015. The guilty plea came shortly after a Sierra Vista police officer booked Ann into jail on a failure to appear warrant.
There have also been other court actions in Arizona against the two since 2013 for bad check prosecutions and failure-to-pay evictions.
