Fraud by a Police Dispatcher

Question

Ex daughter in law forged mine and my husbands signature on a title to a camper. (Valued at 4500.00.) This was done a week after my husband passed away. She was working as a Police Dispatcher and used her notary stamp.

the treasurer stated she needed someone other than herself to notarize it. she went back to work and used a co workers who was unaware. She also forged her signature.

A court hearing was filed and she received 3 months probation. I was upset to hear of this but, more upset that i wasn't even notified it had already gone to court.

First, she did all this while wearing her uniform at work. She also forged and used another dispatchers notary stamp. Does that make it a Federal crime as well? Second, does the courts have to let one know a date for any hearing? (I had called once to see if it had been scheduled.)

This is in Wyoming.

Answer 1

No. Dispatchers are usually run by the state or local government (most likely the former given Wyoming's low population). As this is not a crime that crosses state lines, nor a crime involving federal government property (i.e. killing people in a Post office) nor is it a crime involving a federal employee (i.e. A postman doing what they do best... and I do not mean delivering the mail) the federal government won't get involved. The only other way is if they had a rule about this, but it seems like it's a State Law, not a Federal Law, they also can't get involved (Some laws are state crimes and have a similar federal crime if violated, like Murder. This means the state the murder was committed in can prosecute the crime and the Federal Government can prosecute the crime.). However, even if the state and feds have laws about a certain crime, the Federal Government will drop their charges after the outcome of a trial is determined (i.e. You receive the jury verdict in a murder... whether or not you're guilty, the feds won't follow up on their prosecution of you) and there are strict guidelines as to when they prosecute the same crime that the state already prosecuted (usually the state was egregiously wrong in the verdict or in the sentencing. Having a Jury is not sufficient to meet these criteria).

Most states will notify victims of changes in status of a prisoner (such as transfer to new prison, future parole hearings, imminent releases). Some, but not all, also have a Database of cases as they go through the system and can be tracked in that way. Most are run through the court system, though finding them can be painful. Given that the defendant in your case was sentence to a 3 month probation period, there's likely very little in the way of future hearings.

Answer 2

This would be a state crime. Nothing in the question suggests any basis for federal prosecution.

Many states make an effort to notify victims, but here it seems the OP was not truly a victim, as no money was taken from the OP , the fraud did not affect her credit, etc, or if it did the question does not mention it.

In any case there is not a general requirement to notify people in such cases.

By the way, that the accused was wearing a uniform while committing forgery should have no impact on the seriousness of the offense charged, nor on the sentence. Had the uniform been used to impress or intimidate someone, that might have been a different matter.