A 45-year-old Independence Township woman held on $1.2 million bond for repeated looting of neighborhood mailboxes was released to an inpatient drug treatment facility last week at the request of her attorney.
Charged with 12 counts of uttering and publishing, Tammy Sue Brosier was awaiting the start of court proceedings when a neighbor spotted her again searching mailboxes April 25, and called police.
‘She was out on a minimal bond on those (counts) and was observed going through different mailboxes,? said Sgt. Matt Baldes of the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office Independence Township substation. ‘It’s our opinion she was looking for more checks.?
Brosier, a self-admitted drug abuser, was arrested last month on the uttering and publishing charges’illegally altering and cashing checks’as well as one count of home invasion and five additional counts of uttering and publishing, after she was identified by police investigating complaints of missing mail and bills that never reached their destination.
A resident of the Lake Waldon Village subdivision, Brosier allegedly snatched outgoing mail from boxes in her neighborhood over a period of several months, each time altering and cashing checks left for postal collection.
‘The fact that she cashed the checks is absolutely factual,? said Baldes, noting the department has checks with Brosier’s name forged on them, as well as video confirming she cashed the checks at different banks.
Brosier simply applied correction fluid over the designated payee, then filled in her own name, Baldes said.
She apparently had little or no difficulty cashing the checks at local banks.
The documented incidents took place between Feb. 5 and March 10.
The Independence Township branch of Best Bank cashed nine checks for a total of $1953.75, and the Independence Township branch of TCF Bank cashed at least three checks for a total of $475.91.
Calls to representatives of both banks went unreturned.
After Brosier was arrested for rifling through mailboxes while out on bond, Judge Dana Fortinberry of the 52-2 District Court upped the bond to $100,000 per count, resulting in $1.2 million.
In addition to the 12 counts of uttering and publishing, a felony punishable by up to 14 years in prison per count, Brosier is also charged with one count of home invasion and an additional 5 uttering and publishing charges stemming from illegal entry and theft of a check book from a neighbor’s home October 16.
Five checks were illegally written in that case for a total of $2,547.60
And, said Baldes, several more reports have come over the past week from residents who learned they had also become victims of the altered check scam.
‘We’ve had numerous reports from people in the neighborhood,? he said, ‘who are just now getting notice from their banks, or other companies, that their checks never showed up, or that forged checks came into the bank.?
Brosier, who is currently attending a 30-day inpatient drug treatment program in Pontiac, is due back in court June 18 for a pre-trial exam.
Her $1.2 million bond remains in effect while she undergoes treatment.
Brosier is represented by Attorney Michael Bars, who declined comment Friday.