A Bluffs man has been charged for forgery in connection to stolen checks from a burglary back in July. 54 year old Brian K Morris was present in court yesterday for a preliminary hearing on a forgery charge stemming from a July 23rd arrest at the Casey’s on East Morton Avenue.
According to testimony from Jacksonville Police Detective Jason Bryant yesterday, Morris allegedly walked into the Casey’s with 39 year old Megan Plunkett of Virginia at approximately 3:40PM on July 23rd and attempted to use a check from a Farmer’s State Bank checking account belonging to State Representative C.D. Davidsmeyer to purchase a number of goods at the store. According to Bryant, Morris was seen passing the check after Plunkett was unable to process the transaction. Plunkett and Morris were later arrested by Jacksonville Police after surveillance footage of the transaction and employee interviews identified the two of them in the incident.
Plunkett has been charged separately with 5 counts of forgery, she will be heading to pre-trial hearings on November 4th after pleading not guilty to charges in August.
Bryant also testified that a subject in connection to a burglary at Davidsmeyer’s office in Jacksonville identified Morris as having possession of the checks. Morris has not been charged with burglary, but according to Bryant, Morris may have allegedly been a part of the burglary as well.
Morris’ public defender Elliot Turpin said in court that his defendant did not know the checks were stolen at the time of the incident in the surveillance footage.
Circuit Judge Chris Reif found probable cause for a trial to move forward in the case, and Morris entered a plea of not guilty. A pre-trial conference is set in Morris’ case on December 2nd.