A woman from Stillwater, Minnesota was recently cleared of a white collar crime according to the woman’s attorney. The woman had been criminally charged in two states and was accused of writing checks with a forged signature. The woman was charged in Minnesota and South Dakota and her story demonstrates the complexities of identity theft.
The 20-year-old woman had never been to South Dakota, but on a day when she was home sick under the care of her mother, fraudulent checks were written on a church’s account with the young woman’s name almost five hours away in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. One month before the fraudulent checks were written, the young woman had reported that her driver’s license was stolen at a nightclub in Minneapolis.
In June 2010, the young woman was arrested by three federal marshals and a police officer as she walked off a riverboat in the St. Croix River. The young woman worked on the riverboat. The federal marshals and police officer told the woman that she was a fugitive and handcuffed her in front of her place of employment and in front of customers. The young woman spent three days in jail.
The woman was charged with check forgery. Two months later in August 2010 charges filed against her in Minnesota were dropped. Last week charges filed against her in South Dakota were also dropped.
The 20-year-old woman’s attorney said the identity theft and mistaken charges filed against the woman were damaging to her reputation and cost her money to defend. The next move of the woman’s attorney will be to expunge the woman’s name from court records in Minnesota and South Dakota.
Source: Star Tribune, “Stillwater woman cleared of suspicion in forgery case,” Kevin Giles, Oct. 20, 2011
