Law Enforcement

n October 24 - An officer took a complaint of check fraud. The officer met with a man at his residence in Abbotsford. The man said that he had started a company and said that he had a friend employed by him. The man said that he was recently contacted by his bank in reference to insufficient funds in his account for checks that were attempted to be cashed at a store in Abbotsford. The man was not sure what the bank was talking about and was contacted by the owner of the store as well. The owner told him that there were about four checks cashed by the man’s employee in the store and when she took hem to the bank, they were sent back due to insufficient balances on the man’s end. The owner asked the man how he planned to make things right. The man said he spoke to his employee after learning about the checks and his employee had argued about the man owing him, money for work that he had done. The man said he decided to call to report the check issue afterwards.

The officer asked the man if he had issued the employee the checks and said that he has always paid the employee in cash. The man said he had never wrote the employee a check and the man was the only person with authority and permission to write checks on behalf of him or the business. The man was asked how the employee would have gotten the checks from him. The man said that he had kept the check book in his work truck and that the employee must have taken the checks from his truck and wrote them out.

The man told the officer that the store owner had told him there was almost $2,000 owed and gave the officer the employee’s address.

The officer went to the employee’s residence and told him why he was there. The employee said he was aware of the issue as both the store owner and his employer had reached out to him about the issue. The employee said that he had worked for the man for much of the summer but as the weather changed, there was not as much work. The employee said that he had not received any payment from the man for almost two months prior and he confronted the man about being owed about $1,000. The employee said that he worked it out with the man to get two checks for a few hundred dollars which the man wrote him.

The employee said that he received them after banking hours and went to the store to cash the checks. He said that he cashed two checks on two separate days but was not responsible for the other checks that the owner told him about. The employee said there was another employee of the man’s. The employee said the other employee had moved to Milwaukee during the check incident and said he had equal access to the checks in the employer’s truck and must have wrote the other checks out in his name before moving away.

The employee said he would work with his boss and the store owner to pay for the bad checks. The officer said he would be keeping in contact with all involved parties.

On November 7, the officer went to the store to make contact with the owner of the store. The owner showed the officer the checks that were sent back by the bank due to insufficient balances. In total, there were four checks cashed with a total amount of $1,570 that the owner was not able to receive.

The owner said that she knew the employee from a young age and was friends with the man’s mother. The owner said she cashed the checks because she did not think the employee would do something like this. The store owner said the employee was definitely the man who cashed the checks each time there. Copies of the check returns from the bank were obtained by the officer.

The store owner said she spoke with both individuals since this occurred and the employee said he could start paying the business back but the owner said the proposed payment was $20 here and there. The owner said that was not acceptable to the man and had not heard from him since.

The officer went back to the employer to talk to him about the checks. The officer gave the man two check formatted drawings and asked the man to write in some information off the cashed checks. The man was asked to write exactly how he does when filling out regular checks and to sign his signature the same way. The officer then showed the pictures of the cashed checks. The employer said none of the checks shown to him were his handwriting nor written by him. The man said that he has never paid the employee with checks and had only paid him with cash the entire time.

The officer noted that there were noticeable differences in the cashed checks. The officer then went to the employee’s house and met with him on November 15. The officer showed him the checks from the owner and again asked how many checks he had cashed. The man said he had cashed two. The man denied any involvement with the other cashed checks. The officer showed him the copies and asked if he remembered which of the two he had cashed. The man said he had given his employer a few hundred dollars and the employer had paid the owner of the store the outstanding balance. The officer sent five counts of forgery to the Clark County DA’s office for the employee.

n November 12 - An officer was following a vehicle in Abbotsford and conducted a records check of the vehicle. The officer found the registered owner to have a felony warrant through Marathon County for vehicle operator flee/elude an officer. The officer observed the vehicle pull into a driveway and come to a stop. The officer activated his emergency lights and observed the driver to open the door and step out. The officer instructed the man to sit down, which he did.

The officer spoke to the driver and passenger and asked them for their identifications. The driver had slow, slurred speech and glossy, bloodshot eyes. The officer advised them of the reason for the stop and the driver said he was borrowing the vehicle from the registered owner.

The officer conducted a records search of the driver who came back with no license issued. The officer returned to the vehicle and asked the man how much he had to drink. The man said he had two mixed drinks at a gas station in Minn. The man agreed to perform field sobriety tests to ensure he was safe to drive. The man went through the tests and then agreed to a preliminary breath test. The result of the breath test was 0.163. The man was placed under arrest and transported to the Colby-Abbotsford Police Department. The man was then issued citations for operating without a valid license, operating while under the influence and operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration before being released to a responsible party.

n November 14 - The officer was dispatched to an alley in Abbotsford for a suspicious vehicle. The officer was advised there was a vehicle parked in the alleyway that has been running all night and the caller would like it checked out.

The officer arrived and observed a male in the driver’s seat. The officer could smell the strong odor of alcohol coming from the man’s breath and he had glassy or watery eyes. There was also an opened beer bottle in the cup holder of the vehicle and several more cans and bottles on the floor of the front passenger seat of the vehicle. The officer observed the keys to the vehicle to still be in the ignition.

The man said he had about six to eight cans and bottles of beer that night. The man said he then fell asleep in the driver’s seat of his vehicle. The man said he would be willing to do standardized field sobriety tests and a preliminary breath test. The result of the test was 0.022. The man was placed under arrest and transported to the police department. The man was issued a citation for operating while under the influence, operating without a valid license and keeping open intoxicants in a motor vehicle as the driver. The man was then released to a responsible party.

n November 14 - An officer observed a vehicle traveling in Abbotsford that had expired registration. The officer made contact with the driver and explained to him the reason for the stop. The officer was told the man had bought the car in Montana and they said the license plate was good. The officer asked for the paperwork for the vehicle and the man said he did not have it. The officer ran the VIN through dispatch and was told it does not come back through Colorado (where the temporary license plate was through), Montana or Wisconsin. The officer looked at the temporary license plate and found that it was a photo copy. Actual Colorado temporary plates are laminated with metal grommets. The temporary plate on the vehicle did not have the metal grommets and was all paper. The officer went back to his squad car and ran both the driver and passenger through dispatch. As he was doing this, the passenger exited the vehicle and started walking away. The officer told the man to get back in the vehicle. The man did but left his door opened. The officer closed the man’s door and told him to stay in the vehicle. The man was visibly nervous and was breathing fast and heavy. Neither the driver or passenger came back on file.

The officer deployed K9 Dodge to the vehicle who alerted to the vehicle. The officer had both individuals exit the vehicle. The men were searched but nothing was found on their persons. During the search, the officer found a zipper case with a lock on it in the trunk of the vehicle The officer asked the driver to unlock it and inside, there was a grinder, a plastic bag that was tied off that contained a green, leafy substance, an empty bag of what was raw CBD and rolling papers.

The officer located the Colorado registration in the glove box. On the registration, the address for the Colorado Department of Revenue, Dealer Registrations came back to an apartment complex. The officer took possession of the fraudulent registration and fraudulent temporary license plate. The officer secured the evidence and tested the substance for marijuana. The substances came back with positive tests for marijuana. The driver was mailed citations for possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, operating without a valid driver’s license and displaying false vehicle registration plates.

n November 15 - An officer was dispatched to an apartment in reference to trespassing. The officer met with the complainant who said that a man was in the apartment complex about five minutes prior to the officer’s arrival. The complainant said that his landlord made all tenants aware that the man was not allowed in the building due to previous issues between the man and the complainant’s mother. The complainant said he had no issues with the man when he was there but wanted police to be aware.

The officer called the landlord and he confirmed that the man was not welcome and he wanted the man trespassed from the property. The officer told the landlord he would be filling out a trespassing warning letter and sending it to the man. The officer ran the man’s information and found the man to have a felony probation warrant. The officer contacted the man’s probation agent who said that the warrant was still active and would like him taken into custody if located.

The officer went to the complainant’s mother’s apartment to speak with the woman. She said that the man would not leave her alone and blamed her for his recent incarceration. The woman said that the man had been there earlier asking for money and other belongings. The officer asked the woman if she would be willing to work with law enforcement to get the man to come back to the address so that the officers could serve the warrant. The woman said she would and set up a meeting time for that day.

The officer notified the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department of the meeting as they were looking to speak with the man for another unrelated incident from a few days prior. The man arrived at the apartment later that day and officers placed the man in handcuffs. The man’s vehicle was searched by K9 Dodge and he alerted to the vehicle. The vehicle was searched by CAPD officers while a Marathon County deputy confirmed the probation warrant and transported the man to Marathon County Jail.

The search of the vehicle produced some pills which were located in a backpack on the middle seat of the passenger’s side. The officers located nine clear pill bottles with pop top lids. None of the bottles nor labels inside were prescription labels with the subject’s name and prescribing physician. The officer took the pills and requested charges of possessing medication without prescription for the six separate pill types and bottles to the Clark County DistrictAttorney’s office.