Woman whose wallet was stolen arrested for identity theft.

[ejpoeta]

Now, this story is kind of scary. On the Today Show, matt lauer was interviewing a woman who was a former CEO of wells fargo bank. Her wallet had been stolen and she reported it as such and ended up getting arrested and charged with Identity Theft. Lots of money had been taken from her account as well as other wells fargo customers. And the person who did it was using this woman's handwriting. After spending $50k of her own money on legal fees, the prosecutors dropped the charges because they didn't have enough to convict her. But they still think she did it.

Now, they were talking to her and then lauer asks her son a question. and i hear a familiar voice. I look over at the TV and there is one of the right wing shills that is on MSNBC a lot. His name is todd harris. Now, this is just incidental, but it is kind of funny just because it is a RW shill. I tend to think this woman didn't do what she was accused of doing. IF they had evidence to back up their claims, she'd not be sitting on a tv show couch. But then again, i also wonder if it had been you or i who had our wallet stolen and then when we informed the police were arrested for identity theft, would we be so lucky?? i am not so sure.

[CreekDog]

1. I think this article is about the person you saw (former Wells VP not CEO)

and she was in no way lucky, trust me.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/22/MNFN166EU1.DTL&hw=wells+fargo+colorado&sn=001&sc=1000

Margot Somerville knew she was in for a hassle when her wallet was stolen in 2006 on a San Francisco streetcar. But she had no way of knowing she would end up facing felony identity-theft charges 950 miles away.

Somerville, 64, was a retired Wells Fargo Bank vice president. Her youngest son, Todd Harris, was a nationally known Republican strategist. The entryway of her expensive Walnut Creek home was decorated with pictures of her with former President George H.W. Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. She had never been accused of a crime in her life.

But one Sunday morning in April 2008, nearly two years after her wallet was swiped, police came to her house and took Somerville away in handcuffs on a no-bail warrant out of Colorado.

Prosecutors in a town near Denver claimed she had masterminded a scam in which a woman armed with Somerville's identification had used stolen checks and bank withdrawal slips to steal more than $60,000 from other people's accounts at local Wells Fargo branches. Somerville was charged with 19 felonies.

[ejpoeta]

2. well, in the sense that they could still prosecute her, no she isn't.

i just think that if she had money to defend herself, she was lucky. i just don't understand... could they prove that she wasn't IN colorado?? it seems that the police just don't want to look anywhere else.

[marshall]

3. I hope she gets paid when they turn this into a Law and Order episode!

The script would write itself.