Robbery suspect working for city
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Woman hired as parking attendant two weeks after allegedly forcing Realtor to hand over $8,000
4/15/2008 - 4/16/08
Sarah S. Ochoa, accused of impersonating a wealthy would-be home buyer to extort money from a Santa Fe Realtor, has worked for the city of Santa Fe for four months.
She was hired as a $10.48-an-hour parking attendant on Dec. 17 — two weeks after she allegedly forced Marilyn Foss to withdraw $8,000 from her savings account.
Parking Division Director Bill Hon said Ochoa had not missed a day of work until Friday, when the FBI arrested her. He said Ochoa is trained to run a parking lot and issue tickets.
"She has been an employee that I would keep in a minute," he said. "She's very intelligent. She's very good. She does her work. She comes to work every day."
Hon said an assistant U.S. attorney told him Ochoa would be released Tuesday and she was expected to return to work today. But her lawyer, Caroline "Cammie" Nichols, said Tuesday that Ochoa remains in a Torrance County jail.
"There's a hearing set for (today) but I'm not even sure that her detention issues will be resolved at that hearing," Nichols said.
As a new probationary employee, Ochoa could be fired for missing three days of work without having an excuse. But the city human resources division is holding off pending a resolution of the criminal case.
Ochoa, 24, was arrested Friday outside an Albuquerque residence and was arraigned Monday before U.S. Magistrate Don Svet on a federal charge of interference with commerce by threat or violence.
She is accused of arranging to meet Foss, an agent for Sotheby's International Realty, on Dec. 3 at the Santa Fe Main Library, after identifying herself as "Nata Ramien," a Lebanese citizen seeking to buy a home for her daughter who was to begin a residency in neurosurgery in Santa Fe.
As the two toured a house on Calle San Martin in Santa Fe, Ochoa, while wearing a burqa that covered her face, allegedly pulled a gun and demanded Foss withdraw $500,000 from her savings. Foss drove to Los Alamos National Bank, 301 Griffin St., where she withdrew $8,000 in $20 and $100 bills and gave them to Ochoa, who then left.
According to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Matthew Floyd, the FBI learned Dec. 5 that a waitress named "Mercedez" at Tamaya Resort & Spa at Santa Ana Pueblo had a tattoo of a pair of lips on her left hand — like one Foss reported on her assailant.
The FBI first interviewed the waitress Dec. 6 and learned her name was Sarah Ochoa. She denied she had anything to do with the robbery three days earlier, but had no alibi for her whereabouts that day and declined to provide a hair sample to compare to hair strands Foss pulled from her assailant's head during a struggle.
Nichols said Ochoa grew up in California, has extended family in Albuquerque, attended The University of New Mexico and has worked at a variety of jobs, including at the Santa Fe office of the Rothstein, Donatelli, Hughes, Dalstrom, Schoenburg & Fry law firm, where Nichols works.
"She's always had work since she's been living here," Nichols said of her client. "There's never been a time when she wasn't working either two or three part-time jobs or one full-time job."
Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.
