Aguilar Faces Embezzlement Charges, Water Crisis Ahead of April Election

Aguilar's town administrator, Tyra Avila, was arrested on suspicion of embezzling thousands of dollars from accounts containing the small Las Animas County town's funding for a legally mandated water project, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced. The arrest, first publicly signaled by a CBI press release in October 2025, has compounded a deepening crisis in a community of fewer than 500 residents now confronting questions about its financial integrity, its unfinished augmentation pond, and the safety of its tap water ahead of an April election.

According to a Las Animas County arrest affidavit, Avila is accused of paying herself more than $26,000 from town accounts into various personal bank accounts over several years. Separately, the CBI's Economic Crime Unit investigation found that millions in federal funds had been commingled in the town's accounts and used to pay for expenses other than their intended purpose. Those two findings represent distinct problems: alleged personal transfers tied to Avila, and broader misuse of federal grant money across town accounts.

The financial disorder had direct consequences for Aguilar's water infrastructure. The augmentation pond project, needed to bring the town into compliance with a water court order, was nearly complete when contractor Siete and the project's engineering firm reported that checks from the town began bouncing. Siete stopped work and filed suit against Aguilar for nonpayment. With the pond unfinished and residents uncertain about what the financial mismanagement means for their water supply, public fear over tap water safety has grown.

Las Animas County Commissioner Robert Lucero, whose district includes Aguilar, acknowledged limited visibility into the town's internal affairs. The county contracts with Aguilar for snow removal but is otherwise not deeply involved in town operations, he said. His general impression remained positive: Aguilar, he said, is a "very nice, clean, quiet town." On the specifics of the financial investigation, Lucero was candid about his limits: "I don't really know other than what's on social media."

Former Aguilar Trustee Angela Adams offered a sharper assessment of how the town arrived at this moment. "We were ignored forever," she said, suggesting that governance problems had gone unaddressed long before the CBI's October 2025 press release brought them to wider attention.

The structural isolation of a town Aguilar's size is a recurring theme. The marshal position, which would typically provide the most immediate local law enforcement presence, has long been vacant. Coverage falls to the Las Animas County Sheriff's Office, which patrols the largest county by area in Colorado.

Aguilar has carried the weight of a turbulent past before. The town's historical nickname was "Little Chicago," earned during an era when it was, by local accounts, rough-and-tumble. In 1930, a Prohibition agent was shot dead on Main Street in broad daylight; a news article at the time was unsympathetic, noting that the agent's "impetuosity and his habit of working alone" may have contributed to the ambush. Nearly a century later, the town faces a different kind of reckoning, one rooted in ledgers and water law rather than bootleggers, but with the same underlying question of whether its institutions can hold.

The April election arrives with the augmentation pond still incomplete, contractor litigation pending, criminal allegations unresolved, and no clear timeline for when Aguilar's residents will have answers about the water flowing from their taps.