Advertisement
Nicole Marie Pearson, 28, will be responsible for paying restitution to the victim businesses, court costs and civil fees totaling more than $5,000. The exact amount will be determined at a restitution hearing in October.
Pearson also was sentenced to 91 days of jail that can be served on electronic home monitoring. She was ordered not to have any checking, savings or electronic bank accounts without prior approval from her probation agent. She was also banned from Shopko, Kmart and Wal-Mart because she keeps “ripping them off,” Judge Mary Leahy said.
Pearson’s public defender, Karin Sonneman, said her client’s financial problems caused her to turn to crime to support herself and her 2½ year-old daughter and those crimes were “a big mistake.” She said Pearson has since gotten a full-time job and has sought therapy and counseling.
Pearson was sentenced Wednesday on six different charges including theft by check, child endangerment, and felony check forgery.
In the forgery case, Pearson and Anne Marie Laehn, 24, entered a scheme together in March 2007, when Laehn wrote checks from a closed account to Pearson, who deposited the checks into a new savings account at a different bank. Pearson allegedly gave Laehn gasoline and cigarettes in exchange for writing the checks.
Laehn was convicted in April of theft by check and sentenced to a year on probation.
A restitution hearing for Pearson’s financial obligations was set for Oct. 9.
Contact Kevin Behr at (507) 453-3524 or at kbehr@winonadailynews.com.
