Ex-PD Accused of Printing $1M in Bogus Payroll Checks
A former public defender has been charged with printing more than $1 million in bogus payroll checks to fund casino gambling sprees.
Former lawyer Charles Bradford, 47, was arrested in a hotel room in Bossier Parish, according to the Associated Press and the Shreveport Times.
Sheriff’s office spokesman Ed Baswell told the Shreveport Times that police had no idea what a big fish they had caught when they arrested Bradford in a hotel associated with Harrah’s Louisiana Downs on Jan. 22. Police soon discovered he was wanted by the secret service for alleged phony check schemes in Arkansas, California, Florida, Kansas and Ohio.
“It was reminiscent of Catch Me If You Can,” Baswell told the newspaper. “His M.O. is to go into a community where there are casinos, set up shop, find somewhere temporary to live and start recruiting people to cash the fraudulent checks.”
Baswell said Bradford had been a public defender until his mother died. “After his mother’s death, he started a life of crime,” Baswell said. Bradford’s past criminal record, dating to 1988, includes bank robbery and stealing the identity of a Kansas sheriff, he said.
