A Pleasantville woman was found guilty in a check forgery case as Atlantic County resumed criminal trials this week.
Tianna Williams, 23, was the first person to go to trial in the Criminal Courthouse in Mays Landing since March.
She was accused of cashing a fraudulent check for $5,879.73 at Uptown Check Cashing in Atlantic City.
The check included a real bank and watermark, and even included a phone number that confirmed its authenticity, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Rick McKelvey told the jurors, who sat socially distanced in the courtroom’s audience rather than the jury box.
But the check — along with that phone number — was fake, he said.
When Uptown’s manager called Williams, she said she would come back to the business, McKelvey said.
Instead, she never returned and stopped answering their calls. That is when police were called.
Defense attorney Stephen Funk said there was no proof Williams had forged the check.
He pointed out that Williams did nothing to conceal her identity, with the check including her real name, address and phone number.
“Thieves and swindlers and forgers, they don’t give their victims' their phone numbers,” Funk said in his closing Thursday.
“They certainly don't answer the phone when their victims call them,” he continued. “Keep that in mind while deliberating.”
The jurors came back a short time later, finding her guilty of uttering falsely made documents and theft by deception, both third-degree crimes.
She is set to be sentenced Nov. 5.
