File Charges

[Thunder]

I don't know where to put this at. :-(

Mom have recently dealt with a financial crisis (not like you think it is) involving a bounced check. Someone wrote me a check, I cashed it with mom at her bank. The check bounced and mom lost $375. Attempts to recover the money and/or the things the person bought was unsuccessful.

A police report was filed. Charges was not filed. Police refused to accompany us to the location to retrieve either the money or the items. We were informed that the detective will work on this (what to work on....???) and that it will be about 2 weeks before the detective will decide to file charges or not.

What the f--k?!

Last I learned, it is not up to the police to make a decision to file charges. Mom want to file charges. We even told the police about our plan to go to the DA. The police told us not to...just to wait about 2 weeks on the detective assigned to the case.

Well, mom has the right to file charges. This has been upsetting her and I want this dealt with immediately. What is the options?

(Next post by Midtowner?)

[BBatesokc]

While this is obviously a huge delima for her, it probably falls as a low priority to police. There are only so many detectives and each has a huge stack of active cases - many with much higher priority.

In reality nothing may be done if this is deemed a civil matter. Not knowing the details it's hard to say. People buy and sell thousands of items every day and some of those people get screwed in the deal and often the police simply tell you to sue. Police will probably look to see if this person has a history of these types of complaints. Then they might contact the person to see if they will admit they knew they were writing a bad check.

They DA's office has a bogus check division but I don't know if it covers non commercial transactions.

My first question would be why in the heck would you let someone write you a check for something if you don't know them? I buy and sell regularly on Craigslist and would never take a check.

Also, no, it's not your right to file charges. As a matter of fact you can't file charges. The police investigate and then they request charges be filed by the DA's office. You can make a report and you can sign a ticket in some cases, but you can't file or force the DA's office to file charges.

Your best bet is to try and convince the person to pay and if they don't then you take them to court. However, getting a judgement against a person is no guarantee you'll ever get paid and it will cost you to file a civil lawsuit.

[Thunder]

The lady is mom's friend for many years. I question that friendship. Mom tend to have a...eh..soft heart? I just know she uses mom for years. I accepted the check, because I knew she had just gotten thousands deposited into the account for retirement. I figured the bank took their sweet time to process it while the lady was writing checks everywhere.

Hmm... Sure is puzzling why a police would say to a person, "Do you want to press charges?" I figured we have that right when we say yes or no.

Small claim court... Wouldn't the defendant be billed for court costs?

[BBatesokc]

The police are asking if you want charges filed and are willing to participate in the prosecution. People call police all the time and then decide they don't want charges filed. If you say no then the police tend to drop the investigation (except for acts of violence). Regardless, the case would then be forwarded to either the city or county prosecutors for consideration.

While it is ultimately not your decision to make, I have found the squeaky wheel often gets the grease. So I'd stay on top of it. Get a copy of the police report, stay in contact with the detective, find out when it's been forwarded and then wait a few days and call the prosecutor' s office to inquire. If they say it is a no file, then ask to speak to the person who made that decision and try and plead your case. I've had literally dozens of no files reversed and charges brought against people.

If you go the civil court route you have to pay all the fees up front. If you win they will order the defendant to pay - but that doesn't mean they will. The court has been paid by you so they do very little to get your money for you.

[PennyQuilts]

Thunder, is the woman refusing to pay or was there just a temporary mix up on her accounts? What was the money for, if you don't mind my asking? Is she disputing the amount? Just curious.

[flintysooner]

It sounds to me like something was sold on credit, in this case a transaction paid by check. If that's the case then I believe the recourse will be civil.

[BBatesokc]

Thunder. I called a friend in the DA's office and they said to have your mother call 713-1813 and ask for Mary. She is in the bogus check division and they will assist your mother regarding this matter if warranted.

I had assumed (incorrectly) that that division only handled commercial bogus checks.

[Eep]

The wheels of justice seem to move rather slowly in cases like these. Last year I had someone steal several thousand dollars worth of property and a couple of my personal checks from my home, which she made out to herself, (very poorly) forged my signature on, and deposited in her own bank account. The first hangup was that when the police sent an officer to interview her about this, she apparently told them that I had given her these things. I was unaware of this until (after not hearing anything for a couple of weeks) I called the detective for a status update and was told that the DA's office had declined the case due to her claims that this stuff was all a gift. I still don't understand that part, but I made it very clear that this was in no way any sort of gift, and that these items were removed by her from my house without my knowledge or permission. That sent the case back into the queue again, and in a couple of weeks another detective was assigned.

The detective himself seemed very good and always returned my calls promptly, but said that there was a large backlog of cases at the DA's office and that non-violent crimes such as this one ("uttering a forged instrument" falls into the "white collar crime" division) were fairly low on the priority list. It took a full 10 months before charges were officially filed and an arrest warrant was issued.

Based on my experience, I would suggest that you:

1. Play nice and try to be helpful and patient with the police and the DA's office. Present the facts with as little editorializing and hypothesizing as possible.
   
2. Check up on your case every so often, especially at the beginning while the police are investigating. Once they turn over the case to the DA's office, it's pretty much a waiting game.
   
3. See if the banks involved can help you. BOK (my bank) was extraordinarily helpful to me because they had access to information that I didn't, and worked with Bank of America to recover my funds and gather information to turn over to the police. The detective informed me that in my case, both banks had been very cooperative with the police, but he said that that tends to be the exception rather than the rule - YMMV.
   
4. Create a folder where you keep any and all info and materials related to the case. I would also recommend noting the date, time, persons involved, and matters discussed for every phone call you make or receive regarding your case. I didn't do that, but I wish I had because it would have been helpful (if just for reference) and would have required very little effort on my part.
   
5. Expect it to take a while. In my case, it was nearly a year before charges were filed, and she still hasn't gone to court. It's frustrating, especially when you suspect/know that this person is out there screwing over other people in the meantime, but it's more or less out of your control at that point.

[Thunder]

It was for the garage sale. I'll have mom to call Mary.

[Thunder]

Mary gave mom a personal service free of charge by coming to the house and get paperwork done. We'll be expecting a check so much more now in the mail as soon the lady pay up. If she does not, then I hope she gets jail time and automatic deduction from her retirement check. Mary also told mom that police does nothing to resolve things like this and advised her to stop going to the station. Mary will take care of it now.

[Midtowner]

Eep, I had a very similar thing happen to me not long ago. We hired some movers. One of them stole my checkbook and wrote himself a few checks.

I bank with Midfirst.

I reported what had happened to the bank, they gave me images of the forgeries and told me to make a police report. I did that and they put the money (only about $600) back into the account. While making the police report, I was able to positively identify the suspect. Since then, he has been arrested, spent a few weeks in the clink and is charged with three counts of second-degree forgery (felonies). He has since failed to appear on another forgery charge (just yesterday!) and a charge of attempting to escape from custody. There's another warrant out for the turd right now.

Midfirst really took care of me. So much so that I have been in touch with their fraud department and turned over all of my records to them so that they can see this thing through.

Sorry to hear y'all have had somewhat less than stellar experiences. I was amazed at how fast my bank took care of things and how quickly the detective I made the report to was able to get an arrest.

[MustangGT]

My parents business got clipped in the late 80's and early 90's. The DA then told them that as long as the victims got their money back the suspects would NOT go to jail. They were okay with that since judges were loath to incarcerate and order restitution. Frankly I thought it stunk but to a victim getting their money back is usually more important than seeing the subject go to jail and no restituion.