ISP investigating theft, forgery case
A Greencastle woman is facing multiple forgery and theft charges as state police investigators look for more than $85,000 in missing funds from a local doctor's office.
Lesa Hartman, 45, pleaded not guilty to six charges of forgery and six charges of theft last week. She was released on a $20,000 bond on Dec. 19.
According to a probable cause affidavit by Indiana State Police Trooper Brian Maudlin, Hartman was employed at a local physician's office where it was her job to pick up the doctor's mail every day.
Police allege Hartman took insurance checks that were made out to the doctor and applied his signature stamp and personal account number, which allowed her to cash the checks and pocket the money. Police allege Hartman did this 153 times from January 2005 to August 2007.
The checks totaled $85,778, according to the police officer's report.
Hartman, according to the report, confessed to Trooper Maudlin that "she had cashed the checks without the permission of the doctor."
During his interview of Hartman, Maudlin presented approximately 30 checks that were stamped with the doctor's signature stamp and, in some cases, bore Hartman's own signature.
"Lesa Hartman stated she took the money in order to pay credit card debt," the police report stated.
Hartman's attorney, Darrell Felling said he has received the checks from the state police and is in the process of "determining their validity."
"We're going to be scrutinizing these records very closely ourselves," Felling said.
Felling says his client was, in fact, authorized to cash the checks and that her alleged confession to the police officer should not be construed as an admission of wrongdoing.
Bookwalter said Hartman is scheduled for a pre-trial conference in late January.
The forgery charge is a class C felony and carries a range of sentencing of two to eight years in prison.
The theft charge is a class D felony and carries a possible sentence of six months to three years.
Both charges carry a possible $10,000 fine.