Defending Forgery Charges in Athens
Keeping Your Career & Your Liberties in Henderson County, Surrounding Counties & Northeast Texas
Forgery involves the creation of a false or written document or an alteration of a genuine one with the intent to defraud. Forgery can include filling in the blanks on a document that contains a genuine signature or it can include materially altering or erasing an existing instrument.
A forged document can include:
- Checks
- Bonds
- Receipts
- Orders for goods
- Mortgages
- Deeds
- Public records
- Account books
- Bills of exchange
- Promissory notes
The underlying intent of forgery is to defraud, and this intent is based on the knowledge that the instrument is false in nature. Essentially, forgery has to do with a produced or altered object. A similar crime of fraud involves the crime of deceiving another, and this includes the use of objects that were obtained through forgery. Forgery is one of the common techniques of fraud, and this also includes identity theft.
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Section 32.21 Forgery – Texas Penal Code
Under §32.21 of the Texas Penal Code, to "forge" means to alter, make, complete, execute, or authenticate any writing so it appears to be the act of another who did not authorize the act, or to have been executed at a time or place or in a numbered sequence other than fact, or to be a copy of an original when no such original existed. A person commits the offense of forgery if he forges any writing with the intent to defraud or harm another.
An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor. But, the offense is a state jail felony if the writing is or purports to be a will, codicil, deed, deed of trust, mortgage, security instrument, credit card, check, authorization to debit an account for payment, contract, release, or another commercial instrument.
Forgery can be prosecuted as a third degree felony when it involves stocks or bonds or it can be increased to the next higher category offense if the victim was an elderly individual as defined by Section 22.04.
The penalties for a Class A misdemeanor in Texas include a maximum of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine, whereas the penalties for a state jail felony range from 180 days to 2 years incarceration and a $10,000 fine.
