August 19, 2014 at 1:11 p.m.
Arbor Vitae man charged with forgery, identity theft
Smith allegedly misappropriated over $25,000 from Cassian couple
Arbor Vitae man charged with forgery, identity theft
Brian B. Smith, 49, made his initial appearance in Oneida County Circuit Court Monday on the two felony counts.
According to the criminal complaint, the alleged victims first reported their suspicions to police July 15 and the matter was turned over to Lt. Terri Hook of the Oneida County Sheriff's Department that same day. The couple told Hook they met Smith in October 2012 at a Rhinelander car dealership. Smith sold them a vehicle and, within a month of the purchase, showed up at their house unannounced with a six pack of beer. He showed up several more times during the winter of 2013 and cultivated a friendship, they added.
According to the complaint, sometime in the spring of 2013, Smith visited the couple's house while a contractor was giving an estimate to build an addition to their house. Smith convinced the couple to let him do the addition instead, the complaint states. As a result of the construction project, Smith was at the house for long periods of time, the couple said. In early summer of 2013, he told the couple he knew they had a large amount of money in a local credit union and could invest it for them, the complaint states. The couple, having begun to trust Smith, allowed him to set up an online account for trading in stocks and let him have access to it.
The alleged victims claim Smith talked them into buying some land in the fall of 2013 and building a house. Smith and his wife were to rent the house until they could get a land contract to buy it, the complaint states.
The alleged victims claim they deposited the loan for the property and house into their stock trading account and left for Florida in late January.
While they were in Florida, Smith continued to work on the addition to the house and the couple agreed to let him handle their bills in their absence, the complaint states.
When they returned from Florida, the couple claims they started receiving phone calls about past due amounts on their loan for the land and new house and that $10,000 had been charged to their credit card. In addition, Smith cashed three checks the couple had signed for him to be used in case of an emergency, the complaint states.
Smith was arrested Aug. 14.
During Smith's initial appearance Monday in front of Judge Michael Bloom, public defender Maggie Hogan argued for a bond reduction.
"I think the investigation is still ongoing (and) I don't think there has been any determination one way or the other as to the amount we're talking about here, but what I can say is that Mr. Smith has resided in the area for a significant period of time, he was employed, and based on my rudimentary exploration of CCAP (an online database of court records) does not have any criminal convictions, so I don't think that he is a flight risk," Hogan said. "He has contacted our office and will be represented and he was unrepresented at the time that the original bond was set, so I would ask the court to consider a much more modest cash bond."
District Attorney Michael Schiek opposed the request.
"The cash bond was previously set at $50,000 last week by Judge (Patrick) O'Melia and I think at the time that Judge O'Melia had solid grounds to do that," he said.
Schiek said he has received more information from investigators since bond was set.
"The information that I have is very strong," he said. "The allegations, there are two counts right now, and I think that if we have a change right now, we have at-risk individuals - the victim is a paraplegic. The information that we have, it is the state's theory that Mr. Smith went after these folks because of information he had on the inside through working inside a local car dealership and knew what he was getting these people into. We have at least $25,000 that we have the checks that were written out, again allegedly by Mr. Smith, transactions from the use of a debit card through ATM machines. So although the investigation is continuing, we have a very solid case at this point."
Schiek noted that investigators believe Smith was convicted in Michigan for "similar behavior."
Bloom denied the motion to reduce Smith's cash bond.
"The allegations suggest that Mr. Smith is untrustworthy," he said.
A preliminary hearing in this case was set for 2 p.m. Aug. 27.
If convicted, Smith faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison.
Note: An earlier version of this story stated Mr, Smith is from Hazelhurst. According to the criminal complaint in this case, he has an Arbor Vitae address. We regret the error.
Comments:
You must login to comment.