Plymouth Woman Charged With Check Forgery, Credit-Card Fraud

A Plymouth woman is facing six felony charges after police say she used two relatives’ checks and credit cards without their permission, racking up more than $13,000 in unauthorized charges.

Deanna Michelle Turnbaugh, 32, is charged with one count of check forgery, one count of identity theft and two counts of credit-card fraud, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. She is also charged with offering a forged check and another count of credit card fraud, each of which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The lesser penalty on the third credit card fraud charge is because the amount that Turnbaugh is alleged to have charged on the card is less than $2,500.

According to the criminal complaint, one of Turnbaugh’s victims reported to Lakeville police Dec. 19 that Turnbaugh had written several checks on a bank account belonging to him and the second victim without their permission. 

The victim told police that when he confronted Turnbaugh – who used to live in his Lakeville home – about the checks, she admitted writing them, and they reached an agreement in which she would repay him $200 a month.

However, the victim said, he discovered fraudulent charges on both his debit and credit cards several weeks later.

When police questioned Turnbaugh, she agreed to give a statement, and admitted writing checks to herself in November on the victims’ checking account, signing one of the victims’ names on the checks. Those checks, written between Nov. 1-7, totaled $2,538, according to the complaint.

Turnbaugh also admitted to police that she had used the victims’ debit and credit cards without their permission, spending money on movie tickets, taxi rides, parking fees, online poker games and other entertainment activities, the complaint says.

The victims’ debit- and credit-card statements show 183 fraudulent transactions, ranging from $1.69 to $523.85, at online businesses and at businesses and companies in Plymouth, Lakeville, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Brooklyn Center, Bloomington, Golden Valley, Crystal, Inver Grove Heights, Burnsville, Eden Prairie and Winona.

The fraudulent charges on the victims’ cards were incurred beginning in April 2011 and running through the beginning of December 2011, according to the complaint. The total amount of unauthorized charges, either through checks or credit and debit cards, is $13,137.