Crime & Safety

Apple Valley Police Arrest Habitual Check Forger, Drug User

Police say Rachael Marie Morey used a forged check to buy gift cards at an Apple Valley store, and that she had methamphetamine and stolen credit cards and Social Security cards in her purse when she was arrested.

 

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A Rush City woman with a history of forging checks and using drugs has been charged in Dakota County with eight counts after police say they caught her using a phony check in an Apple Valley store.

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Rachael Marie Morey, 40, is facing three felonies, two gross misdemeanors and three misdemeanors, according to the Dakota County Sheriff's Department'sAdults in Custody website.

Felony charges include check forgery, fifth-degree sale of a controlled substance mixture, identity theft. Gross misdemeanors include giving a peace officer a false name and theft. Misdemeanors include two counts of theft and one count of receiving stolen property.

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According to the criminal complaint, Apple Valley police were called to the unnamed store just before 9:30 p.m. Oct. 16 on a report of a shoplifter.

The store’s loss prevention officer said he had seen Morey hide some merchandise in her purse, then go through the checkout line and pay for other items. The value of the items hidden in her purse was $22.56; the officer said she paid for gift cards worth $350 with a check in the name of a woman with the initials T.L.E.

The officer stopped  Morey after she left the store and confronted her about the items hidden in her purse. She gave the officer and Apple Valley police a Minnesota driver’s license in T.L.E.’s name.

Authorities noted that Morey looked similar to the woman in the driver’s license photo, but questioned her identity. A search of her purse turned up seven credit cards and a driver’s license in the name of a person with the initials J.E.E. and a Social security card in the name of someone with the initials T.L.H.

The loss prevention officer also found syringes and plastic bags, one containing a white powdery substance that tested positive for .13 grams of methamphetamine, according to the complaint.

The officer determined Morey’s identity based on previous encounters with her, and she admitted that she was Morey.

Morey told officers that she had found T.L.E.’s driver’s license and Social Security card on a store counter, and admitted that she made the checks with T.L.E.’s name on them, the complaint says. Police found eight checks in T.L.E.’s name in Morey’s purse, six of which had been used, including one for $162.19 to a different Apple Valley store on the same day.

Morey’s criminal record includes felony convictions for offering a forged check or check forgery in 2004, twice in 2005 and once 2006. She was convicted of drug possession twice in 2005, once in 2006 and once in 2007, and methamphetamine use in 2005

As of Monday night, Morey was being boarded at the Ramsey County Jail on $25,000 bond. An omnibus hearing in her case is scheduled Nov. 13 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.


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