A state lawmaker's ex-girlfriend will stand trial on charges she forged checks from his bank account. Rep. Scott Suder testified he did not give Lisa Brabazon to write the checks from his account. The Abbotsford Republican reviewed each of the forged checks in court Monday and said he did not sign them. "That is clearly not my signature," Suder testified. "I have a very distinct signature and I would recognize my own signature. This clearly is not mine."
Brabazon argued through her defense attorney, Bill Mansell, that Suder gave her permission to cash checks while the two dated. Colby-Abbotsford police officer Donald Schmidt testified as to what Brabazon told him when he asked if she had permission. "Scott had written her a few out," Schmidt said Brabazon told him. "When he was in Madison, he had given her permission to write his checks out for certain things that she needed, and then sign his name to them, and then cash them."
Suder said he discovered Brabazon had forged some checks from his account after his attorneys raised questions about her criminal history. "I saw her felony background, and her two aliases, and we discovered that she had nearly $40,000 in outstanding bills which I was unaware of," Suder said. "I checked into my accounts and discovered that they had been tampered with."
Brabazon will be arraigned on 15 felony forgery charges and four misdemeanor counts of fraudulent use of a credit card October 10th.