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A Pinal County Recorder's Office employee likely compromised the identities of numerous county residents in a check-washing ring that has led to the arrest of four people, according to search warrants executed in the case.

The county employee, Albert Robbs, 51, was arrested last month on charges of theft, identity theft and tampering with public documents after deputies searched his office.

Sheriff's and county officials have refused to comment further on the case because they say it is now in the hands of the state Department of Public Safety. The case was transferred, they say, because the ring involved a county employee.

Search warrants executed in the case show that Robbs was pointed out to investigators by the live-in boyfriend of the central figure in the case, Cheryl Parsons, a 33-year-old woman who lived in Florence, the documents show. Parsons, Carole Lewis, 61, and Parsons' live-in-boyfriend, who is not fully identified in the warrants, also were arrested in the case in early December on charges related to theft and forgery.

A Pinal County sheriff's detective said Parsons' boyfriend told him that he had personally taken a check from Robbs that originated from the Recorder's Office, and he had received packages that he believed contained personal financial information from county residents.

Deputies discovered numerous checks addressed to the Recorder's Office, voter-registration forms and notary-public pages while searching Parsons' residence and one other, according to the warrants.

They also found Parsons owned an iron used to laminate fake IDs and that she possessed fraudulent checks, checks containing victims' names and various Social Security cards.

Robbs will not be allowed to return to his county job while out on bail, county officials said.