I have no idea who the check was written to, nor do I know how much it was for.
OK, lets address this point first. I'm going to list my opinion, so please don't receive it as a personal attack.
When you write a check to pay for something, you note the transaction in your checkbook and adjust your running account balance accordingly.
At the end of each month, you receive a statement from the bank. This statement lists all checks which have cleared up to the date the statement was produced. It also lists any and all bank charges taken from your account.
This is when you do an audit of your account and make sure the bank statement jives with your accounting figures.
Prior to closing a checking account, most people stop writing checks from the account for at least a month, in order to give any outstanding checks time to be processed and paid. Then when you close the account, you inquire about any checks which you don't see clearing on your statement, to see if they have in fact came in. If not, you either leave enough in the account to cover the uncleared checks, or contact the party you wrote the check to and find out why it hasn't been presented to the bank yet.
When you do this, you should know of any and all outstanding check numbers, how much they were written for and to who they were written.
Not everyone is efficient with doing the math for their checking account. This is of course their fault and the courts make these folks attend a check writing school so they learn what they need to know so it doesn't happen again.
Now if a check is presented to the bank subsequent to the account being closed, then it was either written by the account holder after closing the account and they knew or should have known the check was no good when they issued it. This is against the law.
Or, it is possible that a check was held or lost for an extended period of time and when it was finally presented, the account was closed. This should have been caught by proper accounting practices. While there was no criminal intent in this case, it was still the responsibility of the account holder to know this check was outstanding when they closed the account.
Another possibility is that the account holder did not destroy their checks when they closed the account and some unknown person found them in the trash and proceeded to use them without the account holder's knowledge. This is of course against the law.
The bank should have caught the signature as being fraudulent, but rarely do.
Now for the many opportunities you should have had to discover a check was written against your account, even if you missed it in your accounting.
1. You would have received notification from your bank
2. You would have received notification from the victim
3. You would have received notification from the DA's bad check division.
4. You would have had trouble opening a new checking account at all banks
5. Your checks would have been rejected by telecheck when presented to an
establishment who utilizes their service.
So, did you leave a forwarding address when you moved?
Did you open any new checking accounts subsequent to closing this one?
Did anyone ever refuse to accept your checks for payment?
I do not have anything else on my record.
This is a good thing. Do you have a history of writing checks which were not honored by the bank?
As I said before, I moved from Ohio in Aug. 1999 and the arrest date was Oct. 1999.
This delay in charges being filed may be normal. There is time given for the victim to notify you to resolve the problem and there is usually notification given by the court or a notice to appear before a warrant is issued, so charges being filed two months after the fact are not unreasonable.
I'm thinking a check must have gone thru on an account that was closed after we moved, but not real sure.
I wouldn't mention this to the DA or judge as it makes you sound like you do have knowledge of what happened. If you don't know, don't make any guesses. There may be several possibilities, but I wouldn't pick any and then mention them in court.
I would personally go to my bank and ask them to look in their records and provide you with the check number(s) of any NSF checks or account closed returns which happened in the time frame when you closed your account.
If you forgot a check was written for $2.00 when you purchased packing tape for moving boxes and it bounced, that's is one thing.
But if you forgot you purchased $2,000.00 worth of clothing, that is not going to look very good and will not fly.
If there was fraud on your account, you should learn this by seeing a copy of the check and the signature. This is another reason why I would check with the banking institution before going to court. If it was a stolen check, you would file a report with the bank and bring in the paperwork to show the DA this was not of your doing.
Hope this information helps,,,,
