Forged checks used to pay fines on bad-check convictions

~ Twylla Roderick could receive five to 15 years in prison when sentenced in August.

A jury took less than 40 minutes Wednesday to convict a Cape Girardeau woman of cashing two fraudulent checks for $8,500, some of which was used to pay restitution and fines for previous convictions of passing bad checks.

Twylla L. Roderick, 37, of 603 N. Sprigg St. was found guilty of felony forgery and stealing by deceit. Sentencing was scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 14. Due to previous convictions, she could receive between five and 15 years in prison, according to assistant prosecuting attorney Jack Koester.

Prosecutors accused Roderick and her husband, Brad Roderick, 41, of knowingly cashing the two phony checks at a Cape Girardeau bank and at a convenience store in late October.

Brad Roderick pleaded guilty earlier this year to the same charges as his wife and was sentenced to four years probation.

During the trial, he testified that his wife did not know the checks were fraudulent. When his wife asked where he got the checks, he told her they were from a project on the Internet, he testified. He actually received the checks from a woman on the Internet who asked him to cash them and send the money back to her.

Twylla Roderick testified she believed her husband's explanation and did not think the checks were forged.

"You weren't suspicious why he was receiving $4,500?" Koester asked.

"I had no reason to be suspicious," she said, explaining she was happy that her husband was able to bring in more money.

The first check was cashed at US Bank on William Street the day it was received in the mail on Oct. 27.

Amie Kiehne, a teller supervisor for US Bank, testified the check appeared fraudulent. She said it had a poor print quality and was taped, indicating the check was pieced together. Kiehne was at lunch when the check was brought in. A teller with less than three months experience cashed it for the Rodericks, something Kiehne said she never would have done.

The Rodericks also bought two money orders from the bank to pay restitution and fines for Twylla Roderick's previous convictions of passing bad checks in two other counties.

In March 2002, she pleaded guilty to felony passing bad checks in Morgan County and was released on probation.

As part of her probation Roderick was required to pay $873 in restitution, which she did not do. She was arrested and later released last Oct. 19 on the condition she would make progress on paying the restitution before a Feb. 15 hearing.

The restitution was paid with the first money order, and the second was used to pay a $385 fine from Osage Beach, Mo., for a similar unrelated offense.

On Oct. 31, a $4,000 check arrived in the mail. The Rodericks cashed it at the U Kwick Shop, 1702 Broadway.

The store owner, Mohammad Abu-Khudeir, testified he was suspicious of the check but cashed it after confirming the account existed and because Brad Roderick had cashed previous checks at the store from his employer, Steak 'n' Shake.

Both checks cashed by the Rodericks came back, and US Bank and Abu-Khudeir were out the money.

During his closing arguments, assistant public defender Benjamin Campbell said that Twylla Roderick was just happy to have more money coming in and had no reason to suspect the checks made out to and endorsed by her husband were phony.

"The checks fooled everybody else," he said. "Twylla had no reason to not believe her husband."

Campbell also cited testimony from the defendant stating she never would have gone through with knowingly cashing the forged checks because it was illegal and a violation of her parole.

But Koester argued that with her probation on the line and the possibility of jail time for not making restitution, Roderick had the cause to cash forged checks.

"She knew what was going on. She had the motive," he said.

Common sense also should have tipped Roderick off that her husband receiving $8,500 in four days was not normal, according to Koester.

"Why is he still working at Steak 'n' Shake when he's making so much money legitimately from the Internet?" Koester asked.

kmorrison@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127