Porter County Courts
July 20, 2012 5:56PM
Updated: July 20, 2012 10:00PM
VALPARAISO
Probation
for bank fraud
A Valparaiso man who managed to defraud his bank by $3,762 received a sentence where his only incarceration will be the day he has already spent in jail.
However, Richard Gue, 43, will be on probation for three years and has already begun to repay the money he took in April 2011, a requirement of Friday’s sentencing.
Court records state he used three money-advancing checks from a Capital One account that had a limit of $500, writing one for $750, a second two days later for $7,000 and a third four more days later for $4,000.
The bank reclaimed $7,987 that he left in the account, but he took the rest out.
Forgery could get woman 8 years
A Valparaiso woman who allegedly took at least $7,500 from an elderly relative’s trust account has a trial date Nov. 19.
Tandra Stoner, 33, faces up to eight years in prison on each of two Class C felony counts: aiding in a forgery and forgery.
Stoner is accused of stealing two checks from the relative’s home and having a roommate cash one for $3,500 and another for $4,000. The relative said they may have been paying their bills from her trust.
Some of the money went to the roommate’s $3,519 vehicle repair bill.
She received a public defender at Friday’s hearing and has a bond hearing July 27 because she asked for bail bond to be lowered from $2,500 cash so she could start a hotel housekeeping job.
Heroin possession could result in lengthy sentence
A Portage woman faces up to 20 years in prison for having heroin and other drugs in a hotel room on U.S. 20.
On Friday, Amy Lynn Garneski, 29, received a trial date for Nov. 19 for Class B felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
She and boyfriend Carl David Pancer Jr., 30, of Portage, allegedly went to Chicago on Dec. 26 to buy 24 packets of the drug, but when they arrived at the Portage hotel, staff called police because the two left needles and depleted drug bags after a previous visit.
Garneski asked for a reduced bail and will have a hearing July 27.
Pancer has been charged with the same felony but wasn’t in court Friday.
