Suspect in Forgery Case Bails Out With a Bogus Check

Police will be checking out checks more carefully before they release an inmate on bail in the future, thanks to Dennis John Alston.

Alston was charged Wednesday with felony forgery for bailing out of the Van Nuys Jail three weeks ago with a copy of the exact check that got him arrested for counterfeiting a few hours earlier.

A station desk officer didn’t notice that the $1,500 cashiers check made out to the Los Angeles Police Department which was used early on Sept. 6 to bail Alston out was dated four days before his arrest. It also bore the same serial number as the check which prompted Alston’s arrest, Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bradford Stone said.

Didn’t notice, that is, until after Alston was released. When they did notice, the 32-year-old Van Nuys man was then rearrested without incident.

He was charged on Wednesday with five counts of felony forgery for the jail incident and for allegedly passing an additional $4,200 worth of forged checks between Aug. 29 and Sept. 5.

“It’s a little embarrassing,” said Sgt. William Zimmer, a jail watch supervisor in Van Nuys. “Apparently, it looked authentic. We have no way of verifying whether checks are good, especially at 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning. Now everybody’s on their toes. We don’t want to get burned again.”

Stone said Alston purchased cashiers checks and money orders from Wells Fargo Bank, then used multicolored photocopies to make high-quality copies of the checks with altered signatures and purchase amounts, transferring the result to check stock paper. In some instances, Alston inflated the value of checks simply by adding an extra zero, Stone said.

Alston was arrested Sept. 5 after an employee at the Gold and Silver Emporium in Encino became suspicious about a $1,500 check Alston was allegedly trying to pass. The employee called police, who arrested Alston and jailed him.

A friend who presented the copied check as bail for Alston apparently did not know it was fake and has not been charged with any crime, Stone said.

But prosecutors aren’t taking any chances.

They have filed a motion asking that the source of funding for any bail offered on Alston’s behalf be carefully scrutinized, Stone said.