Woman denies guilt on forgery charge
Toolbox
By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: July 6, 2009
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — A Bellows Falls woman has denied charges she cashed a check belonging to someone she was supposed to be helping with drug addiction.
Mandy L. Bermudez, 27, pleaded innocent in White River Junction District Court on Tuesday to a felony charge of forgery, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
According to affidavits filed with the court, on March 25, a woman complained to Ludlow police that Bermudez had cashed a check belonging to her without her permission. Affidavits state she was living in The House at 20 Mile Stream, a transitional living program in Cavendish operated by Windsor County Youth Services, and working as a housekeeper at Okemo Mountain Resort when she began to have problems dealing with her addiction and she checked herself into a rehabilitation facility.
Affidavits state she asked her caseworker, Bermudez, to pick up her final paycheck for $405. The woman later went to Okemo and learned her check had been picked up and cashed, records state. Okemo gave her a copy of the cancelled check, which is part of the court record and appears to have the woman's signature and instructions to pay to the order of Bermudez.
"I never once asked Mandy to cash this check," she wrote in her affidavit.
The woman told police she believed Bermudez had deposited the check into an account for her, but later learned there was no account, records state.
Jacqueline Hanlon, executive director for Windsor County Youth Services, said Bermudez no longer works for the organization.
Bermudez did not return a call seeking comment.
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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