12/2 Attorney General Kris Mayes says a state grand jury indicted two out of state residents on multiple felony counts including conspiracy, fraud and forgery. Johnny Lee Bowers and Ashley Meredith Hewitt, also known as Ashley Hopkins, allegedly submitted applications to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account or ESA program for children, both real and fictitious, with false, forged, or fraudulent documentation. They submitted applications for 50-children, 43 of whom did not exist. They applied as parents under their own names as well as under the names of made-up “ghost” parents. In total, the defendants received about $110,000 from the ESA Program and used the money for their own personal living expenses in Colorado. Hewitt and Bowers now appear to be residing in Utah.
