Returning to the Scene of Crime Gets Suspected Check Forging Ring Busted

What’s worse: cashing thousands of dollars worth of fraudulent checks or using a fake ID belonging to a felon with a parole violation warrant to cash those checks? 

That’s what authorities are sorting out after Flatonia Police and some quick-thinking bank tellers busted up a ring of suspected con artists last Wednesday.

According to Flatonia Police Chief Perry Kram, Flatonia National Bank contacted police last Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 22, while a man was inside the bank trying to cash a $1,700 check. Tellers recognized the man from earlier that morning, when he successfully cashed a $3,000 fraudulent check and got away. 

After the man left that morning, bank officials discovered that the check was fraudulent. Both times the man used a fake drivers licence. When police arrived at the bank, he tried identifying himself with the fake license. 

When police checked the licence, it returned as belonging to a convicted felon with a warrant for a parole violation. Police eventually learned the man’s true identity: 47-year-old Kenneth Butler of Richmond.

Kram said Butler was with another man and a female who fled from the bank parking lot when police arrived. Kram said the trio are believed to be responsible for a string of recent check forgeries at banks in Lavaca and Gonzales counties. He said the male and female who got away are considered armed and dangerous.

Flatonia Police arrested Butler for forgery and possession of fraudulent identification. He remains in custody at the Dan R. Beck Justice Center in La Grange. Kram said investigators from Lavaca and Gonzales counties were interviewing Butler at the jail last Friday. Additional charges will likely follow.

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