Employer Related Check Forgery
My question involves criminal law for the state of: California
I am in a terrible situation, and was hoping you might offer some sound advice regarding the situation. I was working as a real estate agent in Orange County CA. back in 2005. I closed a large real estate sale ($48,000 commission) and turned in my escrow check and file to the broker I was working for at the time. The customary “turn-around time” to be paid a commission is usually 3 days. The Broker checks to make sure your file is complete and in order, deposits the escrow check into the broker commission account, and then cuts the agent a check (minus the office split) in a timely manner. In my situation weeks went by with no payment. The broker did not return any of my phone calls and was never in the office. After a month he finally calls me into his office and states that “he was in financial straits and that he has spent my commission. “ He said he would pay me little by little until the $48,000 was paid in full. I was very upset, but felt there was little I could do. After another month had gone by he still owned me a considerable amount of money and never updated me as to when he felt he would pay me in full. I finally sent him a certified letter to his residence stating that if he did not pay me in full by a certain date, I would take the matter to the State licensing board and report his misconduct, as well as making what he did known to the other agents in the office. Two weeks later, with him not meeting my demands he left a voice mail message on my phone stating that as compensation for his actions he would pay me double the commission if I was willing to allow him a few more months to pay me off. He stated that he was selling his house and would have extra cash soon. Here’s where the kicker comes in. He did finally pay me in full, and wrote me additional checks totaling $44,000 over a three month period after I had been paid for the original commission he owned me. I ended up moving out of sate (6 months later) to take a job in the Atlanta area as a fireman, and apparently just before I moved he reported to his bank that the checks he wrote me (for the “compensation part” of what he paid me) were forged. His bank did an automatic draft out of my account to reverse the charges, and ended up over drawing my account about $38,000. By the time I moved and had figured out what had happened BofA had closed my account. 3 years later I find out that there was a warrant issued by the District Attorney for my arrest (4 counts of second degree burglary).
I called the DA’s office wondering what the heck this was about?? They stated that BofA reported the forged check(s) to their office and that I never responded to anything (which I never got anything in the mail from the DA”s office) and so a warrant was issued 2.5 years after the alleged crime had taken place.
Here are my questions:
1. This guy has since when out of business and moved out of the area. Do I have to track him down or is that the courts job?
2. Since the checks he is claiming that I forged were payment by him to me for compensation of him stealing MY money, do I have a leg to stand on trying to prove why he paid me?
3. Is this something that will eventually go away? (Statute of limitations, etc.)
4. If I go to CA and fight this, what kind of legal fees might be involved to defend a case like this?
5. Finally, if I have never been arrested and have no prior convictions of any kind, and have worked in banks, real estate and other positions that have access to financial instruments, etc. with no history of any wrong doing, will it come down to just his word verses mine?
Any help or advice that you could share would be very much appreciated!
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