Bad Checks

People caught writing bad checks in Anne Arundel County may be sent back to school for a crash course in personal-finance management and self-improvement. A new privatized program in the county is building on a 2-decades-old effort by the state's attorney's office that has diverted thousands of cases from court and gotten millions of dollars returned to merchants. But until now, merchants have had to pay to recoup their losses - either $5 or 10 percent of the bounced check amount and sometimes the $25 fee banks assess a merchant when a check bounces, plus mailing and incidental fees - which eats into the sums they recover.

A Hampstead man and woman accused of passing bad checks were arrested yesterday after police raided a home in the 3900 block of Shiloh Ave. and seized items related to checks previously reported stolen in the town, court records show.Charged with forgery, cashing bad checks, theft under $300 and related conspiracy counts were Phillip D. Wickline, 19, of the Shiloh Avenue address and Gabrielle D. Delaney, 19, of Sunset Drive.Police said suspected marijuana and drug paraphernalia were found in the raid at 10 a.m. They also charged Wickline and Delaney with possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

The Howard County state's attorney's office is seeking to recall most of the arrest warrants issued for people who wrote bad checks yet repaid their debts, officials said yesterday.I. Matthew Campbell, deputy state's attorney, could not say how many, but he said "a number of cases" would be recalled.Prosecutors will review those cases and decide whether to have summonses issued or to drop the charges, Campbell said.At least seven people were wanted on arrest warrants even though they had repaid their debts.

Howard County prosecutors said yesterday they are planning to review cases in which time-consuming arrest warrants were issued for people who bounced checks yet repaid their debts.That action occurs after a 35-year-old nurse was arrested in May on a charge of writing a bad check to the Columbia Association -- five months after paying the money. Another Columbia woman learned Friday that she was wanted on the same charge though she, too, repaid her debt.Five other people are wanted on charges of passing bad checks to businesses in Howard County and to CA. They say they paid the money or that repayment was confirmed.

John G. Craten, senior partner of the beleaguered Baltimore financial company Coleman Craten LLC, has resigned from the firm and directed co-founder Monica L. Coleman to remove his name from the company, his lawyer said yesterday.Craten's resignation, which became effective Monday, comes after reports last week of lawsuits alleging that the company and Coleman committed nearly $1.2 million in fraud, largely through bad checks.Craten is himself a victim of bounced checks and is "owed more than $90,000 after checks in payment of long overdue amounts were dishonored," said Herbert Better, his attorney.

Coleman Craten LLC, a downtown brokerage and financial club founded last year by two Legg Mason veterans, has been accused of fraud by Charles Schwab & Co. in a lawsuit seeking $431,000. The Baltimore brokerage firm, which gained attention through its efforts to open a lavish financial club with a bar, restaurant and other facilities for clients, also faces a $93,000 judgment stemming from a New York law firm's suit alleging that Coleman Craten failed to pay its legal fees. The Schwab lawsuit, filed April 12 in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleges that Coleman Craten deposited a bad check for $650,000 with the discount broker and then attempted to draw funds against it over a one-month period that started Feb. 19. Schwab's charges against Coleman Craten include fraud, breach of contract, and unjust enrichment.

A Carroll County judge revoked yesterday the bail of Roy D. Marshall, a Westminster man who prosecutors say recently wrote two bad checks in Florida, though he was supposed to have been living with family members in Ohio while awaiting trial here on 39 theft counts.Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. signed the order after prosecutor David P. Daggett filed a motion to revoke $75,000 bail on Marshall, 33, of Willow Avenue and the owner of Marshall's Carpet & Services in Reese.He waived extradition as a condition of bail and soon will be returned to Carroll County to await trial, which is scheduled Jan. 26.Marshall is accused of accepting down payments for carpet or other services and not providing them.

Interestingly, perhaps ironically, the color of Stephanie Austin's skin was not an issue in her successful civil damage suit against Paramount's Kings Dominion. A jury awarded her $80,000 for false arrest and malicious prosecution without ever hearing Austin's attorney suggest that the appalling treatment of a young black woman in a Virginia amusement park three years ago might have been racially motivated.Austin, too, was spared such contemplations, and almost, it seems, glad of it - even though her original complaints against Paramount included "corporate arrogance and racism."

A Westminster businessman, who has been charged with accepting down payments for carpet restoration that was never performed, was back in court yesterday on three bad check cases.Roy D. Marshall, 32, was sentenced to spend the next three weekends in the county Detention Center. The remainder of his 90-day sentence was suspended.Upon his release, Marshall will be placed on 18 months' probation.He pleaded not guilty in December to knowingly writing a check without sufficient funds, but agreed not to contest the prosecutor's statement of the facts, court records show.