Colusa school board member investigated after allegedly forging her county residency

Deputies arrested Orozco-lopez at a home in Yuba City

Williams Unified School District board members on Thursday evening were to receive details of an investigation conducted of board member Rosa Orozco-lopez.

Orozco-lopez was arrested in April on suspicion of “perjury by false affirmation” in the filing of her declaration of candidacy, the Colusa County Sheriff’s Department said.

There was no word, as of the filing of this report, of any action the school board might take.

According to the school district, anyone running for the position on the school board must live, or intend to live, in the same county.

According to an investigator engaged by the board to look into the matter, it looks like Orozco-lopez is a Williams resident.

According to arrest records, Orozco-lopez was arrested at a Parkwood Drive home in Yuba City April 6 at 9 a.m. She was booked into Colusa County Jail with bail set at $15,000 and was released that same day, the jail reported.

Orozco-lopez said officers “banged on the door” so hard that morning she thought someone was trying to break in.

“I have never been in that kind of situation before; they put me in handcuffs,” Orozco-lopez said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

She said officers also visited her parent’s home in Williams, where she regularly stays in a backyard guest house. “They held a gun to my step-mom while she was holding a baby,” she said. “She is still traumatized.” She said during both visits, police presented a search warrant.

Since her release, Orozco-lopez said she has not been working on the school board or at her second job at Butte County Office of Education where she works as an intervention specialist, assisting school dropouts. “It was so embarrassing,” she said.

According to a report from investigator Steve Hummel, released Thursday evening, Orozco-lopez legally resides in Williams and did not lie about it when she ran for election to the Board of Education. Hummel said he believes there was some confusion because Orozco-lopez has previously stayed in Yuba City and Sacramento to help take care of family.

“On the surface you might expect an easy answer to the residency question,” Hummel wrote in his report. “It is generally assumed that where you sleep 51 percent of the time is a person’s legal residence. Under California law, however, this answer is wrong.”

Based on DMV and voting records, Hummel determined Orozcolopez is a resident of Williams.

“Williams has always been my home, that is how I see it,” Orozcolopez said.

David Garcia, public information officer with Garcia Hernandez and Sawhney Law said Colusa County District Attorney Matthew Beauchamp was in charge of a criminal investigation.

Beauchamp was not available for comment on if the investigation is still active. Rosa Orozco-lopez

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