No charges filed yet against teen suspected of skimming credit cards

The Yuma teenager arrested for allegedly skimming at least 27 credit cards by copying the magnetic strips has not been charged with any crimes — at least not yet.

During his arraignment in Yuma Justice Court on Tuesday, Justice of the Peace pro tem Manuel Figueroa informed 18-year-old Matt Sykora that the Yuma County Attorney's Office did not file a criminal complaint against him.

“This doesn't mean charges were dismissed,” Figueroa said. “They can still be refiled later in Justice Court.”

Sykora, who allegedly committed the crimes while working at an unspecified Foothills business in the 11000 block of South Foothills Boulevard, was arrested last Wednesday and booked into the Yuma County jail on a combined 20 charges relating to forgery of a credit card, fraudulent use of a credit card, fraudulent schemes and artifices and theft.

Yuma County Attorney Jon Smith explained the reason his office did not file a formal complaint against Sykora is that his office actually has until today (Wednesday) to do so. Smith said Sykora was re-arrested on Friday on new charges while he was still in custody, and isn't scheduled to be arraigned on those charges until today.

Smith said his office is currently reviewing the reports from that subsequent arrest, as well as the initial arrest, and plans to consolidate all the charges into one case, and file a single criminal complaint for all of them.

“By reviewing all the reports at once, it gives us a better perspective of what events occurred and how significant those events were,” Smith said.

According to Justice Court records, Sykora still has two cases against him, one with five charges and the other with six. He is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday for an arraignment, at which time he will be informed if a criminal complaint is being filed in any of the cases against him.

Although no charges were filed against Sykora on Tuesday, he is still in custody, being held on $12,000 bond on the charges from the subsequent arrest.

During Sykora's brief court hearing on Tuesday, attorney Conrad Mallek objected to the presence of the media in the courtroom saying he had not been notified that they were going to be present and that any photos or video taken during the hearing would prejudice his client to the community. The judge, however, denied his request.

Some of Sykora's alleged victims were in court on Tuesday for the hearing. One of them said afterward that his credit card was found at Sykora's residence. Another victim stated that Sykora allegedly swiped his credit card number and made $1,400 worth of charges.

YCSO began investigating Sykora after becoming aware of about five credit card fraud victims, and served a search warrant on Wednesday at a residence in the 1100 block of Tamarack Avenue. After the warrant was served, YCSO identified 22 additional victims and is locating and informing them of the incident.

Sykora was booked into Yuma County Jail on four charges of forgery of a credit card, four charges of fraudulent use of a credit card and four charges of fraudulent schemes.

YCSO encourages anyone with any information about this case to call 783-4427.

James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854. Find him on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/YSJamesGilbert or on Twitter @YSJamesGilbert