ST. GEORGE, Utah, March 5, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — A 29-year-old man has been arrested by St. George police after he allegedly cashed seven of 21 checks that were allegedly forged from the business account of his former employer, J&B Stucco LLC, of St. George.
Sergio Lopez Jr. was arrested Sunday for investigation of alleged:
- Theft valued at greater than $5,000, a second-degree felony
- Seven counts of possession of forgery writing/device, a third-degree felony
- False ID aids, other effort to commit fraud, violent felony, a third-degree felony
The investigation began on Jan. 28, when the business owner contacted police and reported that Lopez used an old check to make 21 fraudulent checks.
“Those 21 checks were then cashed at multiple different Latino check cashing locations around St. George in the total value of $23,856.64 being stolen,” Lopez’s affidavit says.
A witness told police Lopez came to her business “attempting to cash the fraudulent checks using a fake ID,” arrest documents say. “She described Sergio Lopez as the subject who came into her store with checks attempting to cash them with an ID she thought was fake or false. She refused to cash the checks and Sergio left the store.”
After learning that Lopez had been booked into the Washington County Jail for an Adult Probation and Parole issue, St. George PD investigators went to the jail to conduct an interview, the police statement says.
Post-Miranda, the affidavit says, Lopez admitted to linking up with a female who made the fraudulent checks and said he only cashed three out of the 21 checks. According to his arrest document, Lopez admitted cashing fraudulent checks at the Luna Market and Tienda El Paraiso.
“He admitted to only cashing the checks that had the name of Luis Angel Hernandez on them and he used a fake ID to provide while cashing the fraudulent checks,” the affidavit says.
“During the course of the investigation I learned that seven of the 21 checks had the name of Luis Angel Hernandez on them. The total value of the seven checks equaled $7,958.46.”
Lopez was ordered to remain in jail without bail.
