Warrant Issued for Eagan Woman Charged with Possession of Phony Checks

An arrest warrant has been issued for an Eagan woman who was charged with possession of counterfeit checks after police stopped her in July for failing to signal a turn.

Alexa Marie Leitchman, 27, is charged with felony possession of counterfeit checks, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She is also charged with writing dishonored checks, a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

According to the criminal complaint, an officer on routine patrol saw Leitchman pull out of a gas station July 13 without signaling her turn. The officer followed the car and saw Leitchman make a wide left turn, crossing the first available lane without signaling the lane change.

The officer stopped Leitchman and, after checking her record, determined that her driver’s license had been suspended for multiple offenses for which she either failed to appear or pay fines.

Leitchman was arrested, and the officer searched her car and her purse, which contained numerous cash cards and phony checks, which were not printed on standard check stock, the complaint says.

The officer also found several personal checks drawn on a Wells Fargo account, some of them made out to retail businesses, some made out to Leitchman and others blank. He also found checks made out to Leitchman on a US Bank account for a company called Express Cleaning Services and a blank personal check on a Guaranty Bank account in someone else’s name.

Leitchman told the officer that all the checks were hers, that they were legitimate and that the two checks from Express Cleaning Services were paychecks, according to the complaint.

A subsequent police investigation found that the personal checks in Leitchman’s name were for a Wells Fargo account that had been closed in August 2007. The officer found six checks written on that account, dated between July 11-13, 2011, four of them made out to various retail stores. Two of those checks, totaling $162.42, had been successfully passed.

The two checks made out to Leitchman totaled $1,000 and had a valid account number for a Wisconsin company. Police determined that there is no company called Express Cleaning Services in Minnesota, and that the Plymouth address and phone number listed on those checks were associated with a residential address for one of Leitchman’s friends, according to the complaint.

Leitchman’s criminal record includes convictions for theft in 2004 and 2009 and check forgery in 2009.

Her whereabouts are unknown. Anyone with information should contact local police.