Woman who stole from courthouse workers pleads guilty

Friday, July 25, 2008

The defendant, Monique Donteha Logan will have to pay almost $10,000 in restitution under the terms of the plea agreement between her attorney, Gerald Riviello, and the Charles County State’s Attorney’s Office. She will also receive a 10-year sentence, but will have at least five years of it suspended under the agreement.

Between December 2007 and January 2008, employees of a State Farm Insurance office, the College of Southern Maryland, the Office of the Charles County Attorney and the Davis Corp. in La Plata all had their wallets with credit cards stolen from the workplace, according to court documents.

Victims of the theft noticed their cards were being used at stores such as Wal-Mart, Rite Aid, Target and Pacific Sunwear, according to Logan’s charging documents.

Logan was arrested under the alias of Gretchen Ferguson in early January in connection with a theft, and Charles County sheriff’s officers recognized her as the woman shown on La Plata Target store security cameras using one of the stolen credit cards, according to court papers.

Logan told police she and another man would ‘‘buy stuff” with the credit cards a second man would steal, according to the court documents.

No one besides Logan has been charged in the thefts, but police are still searching for people who might be involved, said Kristen Timko, spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff’s Office.

Logan was charged with 13 counts of credit card fraud, five counts of identity theft, five counts of burglary, four counts of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud over $500, fraud and making a false statement to a police officer.

One of the victims, Gina Markovich an employee at the Office of the County Attorney, said she believes someone took her wallet from under her reception desk, where she had stowed it during her lunch break. Her debit card, driver’s license and Social Security card were all inside the wallet, Markovich said. She said she noticed a problem when she checked her online banking and found ‘‘a whole lot of money” missing. All total, about $600 was charged to her card after it was stolen.

‘‘I felt violated,” said Markovich. ‘‘I couldn’t get anything. I couldn’t even write a check.”

She said since the theft, she said she keeps her purse locked in a drawer at work and she’s ‘‘always checking” to make sure her wallet is in its place.