A former employee of the Arizona attorney general’s office has pleaded guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to charges related to a $40,000 jewelry theft.
Vanessa Dailey, previously known as Vanessa Hickman, admitted to theft and facilitation to commit trafficking in stolen property. She was arrested on Nov. 19, 2025, after authorities executed a search warrant at her residence in the Valley.
Court documents indicate that the jewelry had been sent to her address by mistake on June 23, 2025. Investigators believe Dailey sold some of the items online.
The state’s attorney general’s office confirmed that she was placed on administrative leave following contact from the U.S. Postal Inspector regarding the investigation. Dailey, who served as a division chief in the AG’s office, subsequently resigned.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for next month, and she could face up to two years in jail.
Maricopa County, the fourth-largest county in the U.S., is home to over 4.4 million people and accounts for about 63% of Arizona’s population. The county, which covers 9,224 square miles, contains large open space parks with hundreds of miles of trails and nature centers. Its county seat, Phoenix, is the state capital and the fifth-most populous city in the United States. The county was named after the Maricopa, or Piipaash, Native American tribe.
