Lubbock County, Texas

State Of Texas - County Of Lubbock

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Cautions when collecting your own checks

Cautions

While you may, of course, continue to try to collect, great confusion can result from our prosecution simultaneous with your collection. If you choose to continue collection efforts, remember the following points:

1. You may not promise to stop our investigation or prosecution by accepting money.

2.You may not promise to dismiss the case if restitution is paid. You are no longer a party to the case once we file, rather you are a witness. Only the Assistant District Attorney handling the case can dismiss the case once it is filed.

3. You must let us know if you receive any restitution. Otherwise, we may waste time and resources trying to get the check writer to pay you restitution when it has already been paid in part or in full.

4. If you receive restitution, you must fill out a merchant recall in our office.

Texas Penal Code Section 36.05
(a)A person commits an offense if, with intent to influence the witness, he offers, confers, or agrees to confer any benefit on a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding or coerces a witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding:

(1)to testify falsely;

(2)to withhold any testimony, information, document or thing;

(3)to elude legal process summoning him to testify or supply evidence;

(4)to absent himself from an official proceeding to which he has been legally summoned; or

(5)to abstain from, discontinue, or delay the prosecution of another,

(b)A witness or prospective witness in an official proceeding commits an offense if he knowingly solicits, accepts, or agrees to accept any benefit on the representation or understanding that he will do any of the things specified in Subsection (a).

(c)It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a)(5) that the benefit received was:

(1)reasonable restitution for damages suffered by the complaining witness as a result of the offense; and

(2)a result of an agreement negotiated with the assistance or acquiescence of an attorney for the state who represented the state in the case.

(d)An offense under this section is a state jail felony.

All of the information we request of you on the various complaint forms is requested because we need the information in order to investigate your complaint. None, however, is more important than the identity of the check writer and the check writer's date of birth. We must swear to theudge or inform the Grand Jury that all of the witnesses whose statements we used were credible people.

Be assured, however, that the information in our files is confidential and not available to the general public until it becomes public as a public filing or court proceeding. Rarely is the check receiver's date of birth included in any documents subject to public filing.

Payment of partial restitution by the defendant does not prevent the District Attorneys Office from successfully prosecuting any theft case, including theft by check cases. This is so for the common sense reason that the theft, if there was one, was complete when it was committed. Subsequent actions cannot change the history of the case. This issue is also dealt with in the presumption of theft by check.

Contact Information

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