Garner couple pleads not guilty to ongoing criminal conduct, drug charges

GARNER — Not guilty pleas have been entered by a Garner couple accused of ongoing criminal conduct and drug charges. 

42-year-old Alisa Jones has been charged with: one count of ongoing criminal conduct, a Class B felony; a Class C felony-level controlled substance violation; unauthorized use of a credit card and forgery, each a Class D felony; as well as four counts of child endangerment. Her boyfriend, 41-year-old Ricco Riley is facing two Class B felony-level controlled substance charges, a Class C felony-level controlled substance violation, one count of ongoing criminal conduct, two counts of child endangerment, as well as single counts of unauthorized use of a credit card and failure to affix a drug tax stamp. 

== On the ongoing criminal conduct charge, Jones and Riley are accused of committing forgery by stealing a check, altering it and attempting to cash it. They allegedly stole credit card information and used the victim’s information to make multiple purchases on multiple occasions between January 22nd and February 19th of this year. 

== On the unauthorized use of a credit card charge, both are accused of making numerous purchases with another person’s card at two Mason City stores totalling over $1500 but under $10,000

== On the forgery charge, Jones is accused of stealing a check from the Little Lambs Preschool in Garner, altering it, making it appear to have been written out to Riley, who attempted to cash it. 

== On the Class C felony controlled substance charge, Garner police say they executed a search warrant on March 7th at their home where they allegedly found 3.4 grams of methamphetamine, two scales used for weighing meth, and multiple small plastic baggies. Child endangerment charges were also connected to the search warrant since the children at the home have access to where the drugs were located. 

== One other child endangerment charge states Jones is accused of leaving her one-year-old child in the care of Riley who is a registered sex offender, including while she was in jail on a driving while barred charge. 

== Riley’s additional controlled substance charges stem from his being accused of purchasing 10 grams of meth from investigators with the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement in February, as well as an incident in a Garner store on March 7th where Riley ducked into the store in an attempt to avoid officers and hid meth inside a box which he placed back on the shelf. 

Both Jones and Riley filed written pleas of not guilty on Tuesday in Hancock County District Court. Jones demanded a speedy trial with it being set for April 30th, while Riley’s trial is scheduled to start on June 11th. If convicted of all the charges, Riley faces up to 104 years in prison while Jones faces up to 53 years.