The U.S. Department of Justice has unsealed long-awaited files in the case of a Maricopa Meadows woman accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars of wildfire relief funds. Katrina Woods, already sentenced in a separate Maricopa case for identity theft and forgery, will face a federal judge on fraud charges Thursday. 

Woods pleaded guilty last month to stealing a Florida woman’s identity to rent her Dutchman Drive home. She has since been extradited into federal custody.  

This more serious case centers on allegations that Woods submitted a fraudulent application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in January, falsely claiming her home address in Altadena, Calif. — an address that does not exist — was destroyed in the Eaton Fire earlier this year. InMaricopa was the first to report the indictment. 

The newly unsealed documents include previously unseen photos of 33-year-old Woods. Also unsealed was a 26-page narrative by Special Agent Roxanna Dale of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General detailing her probe into the defendant.  

“A claim for federal disaster assistance was submitted Jan. 30 over the telephone listing 2060 N. Lake Ave. in Altadena, Calif., as the purportedly damaged dwelling,” Dale wrote. 

In that application, Woods claimed the home was a rental and her primary residence. She included her birthdate, social security number and mailing address on Dutchman Drive.  

Before it was discovered that 2060 N. Lake Ave. does not exist, FEMA disbursed $23,441 in disaster relief to Woods to cover supposed damages to personal property, transportation, medical and housing assistance at hotels in Los Angeles as a part of President Joe Biden’s Major Disaster Declaration for California. 

How they caught her 

Woods’s carefully crafted story began to fall apart when federal agents spotted inconsistencies in the bills she submitted for reimbursement. 

As part of her disaster relief claim, Woods electronically submitted a copy of her Arizona driver’s license — with a listed address on Dutchman Drive — to FEMA Jan. 31. 

One week later, Woods submitted a “purported bank statement” from Navy Federal Credit Union dated Dec. 24 to Jan. 20 that listed her name with the fake address. A “purported bill” dated Feb. 15 from AT&T also displayed her name with the fake Altadena address.  

Federal investigators contacted both AT&T and Navy Federal Credit Union on Feb. 20. Representatives from both institutions reported the bills had “been altered” and that neither company was aware of Woods’s Lake Avenue address. 

In fact, Woods never even lived in Altadena, according to Dale. The closest she ever lived was Compton, about an hour to the south. 

Special agent on FaceTime 

By March 7, Special Agent Dale had gone undercover.  

“I conducted three telephonic conversations with Woods in which I identified myself as a FEMA subcontractor,” Dale wrote. “Woods said she had just been on the phone with FEMA and was on hold regarding her hotel stay.” 

She told Dale she was staying at a FEMA-provided hotel in downtown Los Angeles, then got on FaceTime with him to review the application together. 

Here is Dale’s description of their Facetime call:

On March 8, Woods texted Dale asking about her hotel reimbursement for a 22-night stay, saying “it was like $3,200.” She also told the undercover agent that she had uploaded the receipt to FEMA. 

Two days later, FEMA stopped covering her lodging. Dale then received another text from Woods: 

“The hotel stay is not supposed to be up until the 14th, but I just went down because when I called Fema they said in the system that it is good until March 27 so when I went to the front desk, they said as of today payments will no longer be made from Fema that you guys terminated my lodging [sic].” 

The U.S. District Court in the Central District of California issued a warrant for Woods’s arrest April 17. That’s when Dale asked the court file all documents under seal because “disclosure of the complaint and search warrant affidavit at this time would seriously jeopardize the investigation, as such disclosure may provide an opportunity to destroy evidence, change patterns of behavior or allow flight from prosecution.” 

The case files were unsealed and released to InMaricopa this morning.

What we’re following next 

Woods had been in custody since Maricopa Police Department officers arrested her April 23 in connection to identity theft and forgery in a separate case. 

She pleaded guilty before a Pinal County Superior Court judge and was extradited to federal custody on June 18 after she was sentenced on the local charges. 

In that case, InMaricopa recently learned that Woods’s romantic partner, Jeffrey Walker, was also arrested during a search warrant executed in connection with the fraud probes. He was arrested alongside his live-in girlfriend but on separate charges related to drug trafficking and weapons. More reporting on the local investigation will follow as reporters gather photos of the seized contraband.

On June 23, Woods was released in California on personal recognizance, according to the new federal court records. She will be arraigned in Los Angeles at the U.S. district court on the federal fraud charges Thursday at 1:30 p.m.