Bad Checks

State Del. Leslie E. Hutchinson knowingly gave her landlord a bad $1,500 check drawn on an empty bank account belonging to her uncle's campaign committee, her attorney confirmed yesterday.But, lawyer Richard M. Karceski said, the Essex lawmaker never intended the check to be cashed."It was her understanding it was a closed account at the time she wrote the check," he said, but "it was never intended to be a check. It was never intended to be a negotiable instrument. It was a promise that the rent would be paid."

Write a bad check at Doc & Annie's, and you'll get a taste of fame. Michael "Doc" King will see to it.The co-owner of the Brooklyn Park tavern might never get his money back, but he has his own kind of revenge.It's a roadside sign with changeable letters. On the upper tier it reads "Doc & Annie's," as it has for more than a decade. But below that, there's apt to be a personal message from Mr. King.These days, it's "Jackie McLung writes bad checks."This particular bar patron did, in fact, write three of them totaling $95. And Mr. King wants it known to everyone driving the busy commercial stretch of Ritchie High- way.For four years, Mr. King has gotten back at a dozen patrons who stuck him for a bar tab or rent on an upstairs room by embarrassing them publicly.

A Glen Burnie travel agent accused of bilking airlines and travelers out of more than $62,000 pleaded guilty yesterday to 23 counts of theft and bad check charges.Cheryl A. Riley, 46, of the 100 block of Phelps Ave., pleaded guilty to 16 counts of felony theft, six counts of felony bad check charges and one count of misdemeanor theft before Circuit Judge Raymond G. Thieme.Riley agreed to plead guilty after Judge Thieme told Rene Butta, her public defender, that any incarceration imposed at the Dec. 7 sentencing would be at the county detention center rather than in the state prison system.

When William D. Hipp bought a used lawn tractor last year with a bad check, he probably didn't expect to buy 10 years in the slammer.After all, Hipp, of the 3000 block of Lineboro Drive in Manchester, had been charged with passing bad checks at least 30 times since 1971 and had served little jail time.But yesterday, Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. sentenced the 45-year-old to 10 years in state prison. Actually, Hipp will serve a maximum of five years behind bars, because Judge Beck suspended five years of the sentence.

WESTMINSTER -- When he found a 22-year-old woman guilty of three counts of bad checks, Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck Sr. told her she used "a pen like someone uses a pistol."Victoria Cunningham, was found guilty of writing three bad checks at county grocery stores last year after she agreed to plead not guilty but accept the state's version of the facts.One of the checks was for $224 at George's Super Thrift in Eldersburg, another was for $296 at the Westminster Co-Op grocery store, and the third was for $132 at Millers Food Market.

Carole Colbert Sales shouldn't have bounced those grocery checks. She should have returned her rented videotapes on time. And she should have appeared in court to take responsibility for her errors.But does she really belong on a list of Anne Arundel's "Most Wanted" criminals?Since she appeared on the list last month, Sales has been stoppedin the checkout lines at grocery stores by clerks who recognized herand chased, on foot, through Glen Burnie by police."I've had a horrible week," said Sales, "hiding out" in her sister's kitchen in Lansdowne shortly after the chase.

Maurice K. Jones was everywhere Visa -- and American Express, the Motor Vehicle Administration and a Carroll County bank -- didn't want him to be.The 31-year-old Washington accountant or clerk (prosecutors aren't sure which) was convicted Monday in Carroll County CircuitCourt on a single theft charge.The charges resulted from a two-hour bogus check-writing scheme last November that led county, state and federal investigators to a trunk full of machines used to churn out phony credit cards, driver's licenses and bank account documents.

WASHINGTON -- Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume wrote 12 overdrafts on his account at the trouble-plagued House Bank.But he didn't write them to help lead the glamorous lifestyle often associated with some of Washington's more free-spending political figures, according to a news release issued by his office.Mr. Mfume, a 7th-District Democrat and member of the House Ethics Committee, found himself with egg on his face this month when he was informed by his own committee that he had made the 12 overdrafts during the 39 months under review.

Kweisi Mfume was quite honored when he was asked to fill a seat on the House ethics committee last October, even though the reason for the opening was embarrassing.Louis Stokes, Democrat from Ohio and chairman of the committee, had to step down when it was discovered that he had written rubber checks at the House bank.But Mfume was considered a good choice for a committee slot. He had a reputation for being serious, sober and solid.And so House Speaker Tom Foley wanted to know just one thing before Mfume was appointed: Had Mfume written any bad checks himself?

WASHINGTON -- Disclosure of the 24 worst "abusers" of the House bank will have to wait at least until the end of this week, as those present and former House members mount a defense of their check-writing practices.The House ethics committee is giving those found to have written the most bad checks -- between 81 and 996 over the past three years -- a chance to be heard before their names are officially released. A spokesman for Rep. Matthew F. McHugh, a New York Democrat who serves as acting committee chairman, said the list would be released Friday at the earliest.