stolen money

i am in arizona. i cashed some checks for an acquaintance. her wallet had been stolen and had no I.D.,so she couldn't cash a check herself. the checks were written to me in my name. i cashed the checks at my bank. they totaled more than $1600. i gave her the money. several days later she stopped payment on the checks. my bank took the funds out of my account and placed them into her account. she then closed out her account. my attempts to contact her have failed. she had her phone disconnected-possibly to avoid me. i don't know what to do. i want to go to the police. i think this might be "thieft by check". however, it my understanding that the police will only be concerned with prosecuting her and not necessarily interested in helping me recover my money. i am considering hiring an attorney to see if they can offer her a chance to "buy back" the checks to avoid theft charges. should i just go to the police? can i try the attorney route?, or is that some form of extortion? i am not concerned with weather or not this woman goes to jail. i just want my money back. can someone tell me what my options are? thankyou.

You are going to need to attack this on two fronts.

1) Go to the police and file a theft and/or fraud complaint (they will determine the charges, you just tell them what happened).

2) Go to the county courthouse and file a small claims complaint against her.

Then, let the system take its course. The criminal aspect will probably not get your money, but it will prevent her from doing this to others. It is also possible that this could get your money back in a form of plea bargain / restitution.

The civil route could get your money back.