14 charges filed against suspected high school imposter

A total of 14 felony charges have been filed against the 22-year-old Yuma man who allegedly pretended to be a student at two Yuma high schools and had a sexual relationship with a minor.

During his arraignment in Yuma Justice Court Monday afternoon, Anthony M. Avalos was charged with 11 counts of sexual conduct with a minor and three counts of forgery.

Avalos, who actually graduated from a Florida high school four years ago, appeared before Justice of the Peace David Cooper, who ordered Avalos' bail remain at $110,865, which was set at a previous hearing.

Cooper also set Avalos' next court date - a preliminary hearing - for 4 p.m. Friday in Yuma Justice Court.

Yuma attorney Candy Camerena filed a notice of appearance with the court to represent Avalos and was present during the hearing.

Camerena also asked the judge for a condition of release hearing for his client but Cooper declined the request, saying he had to make the request in Yuma Superior Court.

Yuma police arrested Avalos on Nov. 5 for fraudulently attending Kofa High School and Vista Alternative School intermittently since September 2008.

The criminal investigation into Avalos, who was No. 52 on last year's Kofa High School basketball team, began after officials at Kofa brought information to the attention of the school resource officer.

According to court documents, a clerk at Kofa High School visited Avalos' Facebook page and discovered that he had posted that he graduated from Crestview High School in 2005.

Kofa High School Principal Gina Thompson then contacted Crestview High School to confirm the information Avalos had provided to the school, and the school administration in Florida provided Kofa officials with a copy of Avalos' birth certificate and social security number.

Court records also indicate that Avalos, who was born in El Paso, Texas, admitted that he had created a fake birth certificate, which he used to enroll in school, using a word processing program on his laptop.

He also admitted to having sex with a girl who he knew was under 18 years of age on at least three different occasions.

Court records also indicated that when asked by police why he was posing as a high school student, Avalos said he wanted to play basketball in hopes of getting a scholarship.

Court records also indicate that in September 2008, Avalos enrolled at the school claiming to be a victim of Hurricane Katrina and that the required documents to register for school had been destroyed.

Yuma police have said Yuma Union High School District is fully cooperating with the active investigation.

The Yuma Police Department encourages anyone with any information about this investigation to please call (928) 373-4700 or 78-Crime to remain anonymous.

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James Gilbert can be reached at jgilbert@yumasun.com or 539-6854.