A former Department of Education employee who was indicted for allegedly approving improper purchases for ineligible or nonexistent children in the Empowerment Scholarship Account program was found not guilty on all charges following a two week jury trial.

Former ESA employee Dorrian Jones was indicted alongside former coworkers Jennifer Lopez and Delores Lashay Sweet, and Sweet’s two adult children, as part of a scheme in which the trio allegedly created ESA accounts for real and fictitious children using falsified documents, then approved fraudulent expenses, accumulating more than $600,000 from the program in the process.

Jones, facing felony counts of conspiracy, fraudulent schemes and artifices, illegally conducting an enterprise and ten counts of forgery, was the sole defendant to go to trial after Lopez entered a testimonial agreement with the state, and Sweet and her children agreed to plea deals.

After a two-week jury trial marked by warring testimony between Jones and Lopez and a lack of input from any ESA employee or top brass, Jones was found not guilty on all charges.

“Honestly, I truly believe my client,” Jones’ attorney Adam Feldman said. “ Not just that he was not guilty, but that he was innocent.”

The state grand jury indicted Jones, Lopez and Sweet in February 2024.

In the indictment, the state alleged the defendants used forged documents, including falsified birth certificates and special education evaluations, to apply and enroll real, but ineligible, and “ghost” children in the ESA program and approve reimbursement and expense requests.

All in all, the defendants allegedly took $614,352 from the program between October 2021 and November 2023.

Both Lopez and Jones took the stand over the course of the two week trial. Witnesses from the state were otherwise limited. In a string of motions, Feldman asked for ESA employees to be precluded from testifying given delayed disclosure by the state.

Feldman said he filed the motion to preclude ESA employees after the state said they did not intend to call ESA employees and potential witnesses, like director John Ward, were “hiding behind their attorneys.”

“Strangely, the prosecution designed this case for failure. For the first seven, nine months they were trying to do this case without calling a single ESA employee as a witness, which is ridiculous when you think about it, because the case is entirely about ESA,” Feldman said.

He continued, “I wanted to speak with the ESA people. It’s not like I wanted them out of the trial. I wanted to know the information. I wanted to know all aspects of ESA to confirm or refute anything my client was telling me.”

Feldman told jurors the case “entirely boiled down to a he said, she said” in opening statements.

He sought to undermine Lopez’s credibility from the start, noting that she had created and approved false accounts to collect around $200,000 from the program, while painting Jones as an upright employee trying to keep up with a high caliber of reimbursement requests and expenses.

Carolina Lopez, an attorney for the state, told jurors that Jones was the “money gatekeeper,” and said he had been “exploiting his position to satisfy his own greed at the expense of Arizona students.”

Over the course of the trial, jurors heard from Lopez and Jones, as well as special agent Annalisa Madsen and ClassWallet CEO Neil Steinhardt.

In the lead-up to the verdict, the state moved to dismiss three counts, citing a low likelihood of conviction. Following deliberation, the jury found Jones not guilty on all counts on Feb 27.

A spokesperson for the attorney general declined to comment on the disposition of the case.

Sweet’s adult children, Jadakah Celeste Johnson and Raymond Lamont Johnson Jr., were the first to take plea deals and see sentencing. The two pleaded guilty to a single count of facilitation to commit money laundering, and were ordered to serve three years supervised probation and pay $196,526 in restitution.

Lopez and Sweet are still awaiting sentencing.

As part of Sweet’s plea deal, she pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent schemes and one count of forgery. She agreed to serve 2.5 years in prison for forgery, be placed on probation following her release and pay $614,352 in restitution with her co-defendants.

Lopez pleaded guilty to a single felony count of forgery and would be eligible for up to four years supervised probation.

She could face a maximum fine of $150,000 plus a 79% surcharge, with a requirement to be paid to the state’s anti-racketeering revolving fund. Lopez would also owe restitution, with a minimum of $202,382 to the Dept. of Education.

Lopez is set to be sentenced on March 31, and Sweet on April 14

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