Judge Holds Defendant to Answer in Forgery and Counterfeiting Case

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YoloCourt-23by Tiffany Yeh

Floyd Taylor is charged with felony forgery and counterfeiting in the amount of $35,000, a violation of Penal Code section 476a. Judge David Reed held Mr. Taylor to answer.

Floyd Taylor used to own a company called FBT Transport. He was to pay Enterprise Truck Rental $35,000 on or before January 31, 2015. He was in contact with an employee at the West Sacramento Enterprise office.

Deputy Public Defender Dan Hutchinson argued that Mr. Taylor had postdated the check for $35,000. Postdating is when you put down a later date than the date you actually write the check. Mr. Taylor’s check was dated for February 2, 2015.

Mr. Taylor and Enterprise Truck Rental had had a business relationship for several years, since 2012. The amounts Mr. Taylor paid to Enterprise were around $30,000-$40,000 each month since 2012. He did usually pay the amount to Enterprise on the last day of the month, but had always made the payment.

The Enterprise employee remembers there may have been a time when Mr. Taylor’s check bounced, but when Mr. Taylor found out about it, he immediately wrote a cashier’s check for the amount, made out to Enterprise, and that cashier’s check went through.

Mr. Taylor had told the employee that he relies on being paid by the U.S. Post Office for contracts he makes with them. Taylor’s helps the post office deliver mail.

Mr. Taylor receives payments from the post office near the end of the month, which is a big part of why he usually pays Enterprise late in the month.

After the $35,000 check did not go through, the Enterprise employee worked with Mr. Taylor to have Taylor pay $1,500 a week, but Mr. Taylor put that amount on his credit card, which was declined. Enterprise then decided to stop renting to Mr. Taylor’s company and took back their trucks.

Mr. Hutchinson argued that Mr. Taylor has done around $400,000 in business with Enterprise and has paid them at the end of the month (when paid by the post office), every time. He stated that there is no fraudulent intent by Mr. Taylor.

In fact, there were two previous times when Mr. Taylor wrote checks to Enterprise and asked the Enterprise employee to hold off on cashing the individual checks until payments by the post office to Mr. Taylor were processed. During February of 2015, Mr. Taylor had postdated the check. He had not received money from the post office then, and thus was not able to pay Enterprise.

Mr. Hutchinson argued that Mr. Taylor was a bad businessman at the end, but did not have a fraudulent intent. He was trying to make his business work and survive (but Taylor’s business went bankrupt pretty shortly after February of 2015).

Deputy District Attorney Matt De Moura argued that Mr. Taylor only had around $27,000 in his bank account on January 30, 2015, and had around $700 in his account on February 2. He did not have sufficient balance to cover his check, and thus committed fraud. After February, Mr. Taylor did not keep in contact with Enterprise about his situation. He had written a check knowing that he had insufficient funds.

Judge David Reed held the defendant to answer on the charge.

Mr. Hutchinson asked the judge to consider reducing the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor. He said that Taylor was a man trying to keep his business working and Enterprise will receive restitution, regardless of whether Taylor is charged with a felony or a misdemeanor.

Mr. De Moura argued that $35,000 was a “significant financial obligation” for Enterprise to be out that much money, and argued that it should be a felony.

Judge Reed stated that it was indeed a lot of money. If the defense shows that there was evidence that Mr. Taylor expected to be paid by the post office, and discloses that information, including the amount, to the prosecution and court, he would consider the defense’s request. The defendant will be arraigned on June 10, at 9am.

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About The Author

The Vanguard Court Watch operates in Yolo, Sacramento and Sacramento Counties with a mission to monitor and report on court cases. Anyone interested in interning at the Courthouse or volunteering to monitor cases should contact the Vanguard at info(at)davisvanguard(dot)org - please email info(at)davisvanguard(dot)org if you find inaccuracies in this report.

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3 thoughts on “Judge Holds Defendant to Answer in Forgery and Counterfeiting Case”

  1. Marina Kalugin

    I am happy to see that judges are now doing the difficult and holding some accountable..

    On the other hand, too many are set up for white crimes these day…especially women and people of color…..not sure in this case if this is appropriate or not….not commenting on the merits or not

    Just bringing up that many who are culpable get off and many are scapegoated…..this military/prison/industrial/educational complex at work in the US>>>>>>

     

  2. Tia Will

    Having only the knowledge of what is posted in Tiffany’s article, I see this as an issue where what is “just” may be taking a back seat to the “letter of the law”. Certainly writing a check when you know that you do not have available funds is neither legal, nor a sound business practice. However, when you have an individual who has a previously good record and doubtless felt themselves to be in a desperate financial situation, is justice truly best served by a felony placed on one’s record ?  Or would justice be better served by  having to restore the full amount owed ( plus perhaps a penalty fee) and/or perhaps some community service since obviously adding on fees to the debt of someone who is already bankrupt is clearly counter productive ?  Might not be a better way to help both the injured party  ( Enterprise ) and this man who it seems was doing his best, but failed, to keep his company afloat ?

  3. Barack Palin

    David, do you plan on covering the current trial about the black foreign UCD student that’s accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Davis?  This case appears to have many elements that the Vanguard thrives on with the possibly of the trial going into police tactics, racism, the must say “yes” law and language barriers.

    http://www.davisenterprise.com/local-news/crime-fire-courts/former-ucd-grad-student-tried-on-sexual-assault-charges/

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