Golden – Three people have been indicted in an alleged scheme that involved stealing mail from private homes and cashing stolen and counterfeit checks to buy drugs.
Constance Kay Matthews, 42, of Denver; Mathew James Sweeney, 41, of Denver; and Sean Thomas Montgomery, 29, of Lakewood were indicted by a Jefferson County grand jury, accused of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act.
Matthews and Sweeney are being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $25,000 bail each. A warrant has been issued for Montgomery.
The indictment, announced Monday by Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey, alleges the three worked together to steal mail from mailboxes in front of residences.
Ring members referred to the activity as “mailboxing,” the indictment said, with most of the thefts done in the Evergreen area early in the morning.
Foothills communities are particularly vulnerable to mailbox theft because residences are isolated yet close to the metro area, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
“This type of activity is one reason why we desperately need an identity-theft bill in Colorado,” Storey said. “While we were able to indict this group under the organized crime statutes, we can’t always prove that criminals who steal personal identifying information and checks are operating in an organized manner. Without that proof, the penalties aren’t high enough to stop this increasingly serious problem.”
The stolen mail occasionally contained legitimate checks that were cashed by the ring, the indictment said. Usually, the stolen mail contained documents from which bank routing and account numbers were used by the ring members to create counterfeit checks with software programs on computers, the indictment said.
Ring members, who the indictment stated were methamphetamine users, then recruited other people to cash the checks for a flat fee or a percentage. Checks were cashed at Black Hawk casinos, Wal-Mart stores and several other businesses and banks.
The ring operated from about April through October last year and involved more than 100 counterfeit checks. Agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Lakewood and Black Hawk police departments worked on the case.
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
