Daniel Cordova, 20, Grand Marais, entered a guilty plea on October 30, 2012 to check forgery and theft. An additional charge of burglary in the second degree was dismissed.
The charges stemmed from an investigation of a missing purse in February 2012. An 81-year-old Grand Marais woman reported to Cook County Law Enforcement that her purse might have been left at South of the Border Restaurant when she had breakfast there on February 1, 2012, or had been stolen from her. The woman reported that several important items were in the purse, including $30 and her checkbook.
Investigation found that a check had been written on her account at Buck’s Hardware Hank and Mike’s Holiday in Grand Marais. Surveillance footage at Mike’s Holiday captured an image of the person who presented the check for payment. Cook County Sheriff Deputy Julie Collman was able to identify the woman, Randee Lynne Wesley, 19, and interviewed her. Wesley successfully cashed two checks writing “motor oil” and “birthday money” in the memo line.
Wesley told Deputy Collman that she and Cordova were at Harbor View Apartments, where the woman lives, and they noticed an open apartment door. Wesley admitted that they took the $30 and the checkbook.
Deputy Collman contacted a family member of Cordova and was able to retrieve and return the woman’s purse to her. Cordova was charged with intentionally aiding, advising, hiring, counseling or conspiring with Wesley in the theft and cashing of the checks.
Cordova was sentenced on November 20, 2012 to one year in jail, which was stayed for two years with supervised probation and conditions, and ordered to pay fines, costs and restitution of $510.
Wesley, whose last known address was in Grand Marais, has not been charged. A warrant has been issued for her arrest.
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