Who are we? We are our stories.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

House For Sale in Oakwood???

Oakwood has 42 older houses, a park in the middle and two circular streets on a more or less round peninsula. It's like a small village. We all know each other. We know the kid's names and the dog's names. We socialize within the neighborhood. We talk among ourselves. A lot to talk about this week as people walk the circle in the evening. Insurance agent and longtime Oakwood resident, Reid Nelson, has got himself into a bit of a legal bind. Presently he's in the Owatonna jail. May he rot there forever. He stole money from poor old addled Ralph Peterson, a wonderful man. A snip below from a longer article in the local rag. (The Argon Bar is a strip club. The Nasty Habit, well you can imagine what a bar called The Nasty Habit is like. An interesting aside, Reid's brother is the County Attorney):

“The checks that were received from Wells Fargo were mostly written out to ‘Cash.’ The endorsement on the back of most of the checks was by The Nasty Habit bar,” the court files state.

There were also checks to a dentist, a mortgage company and to Reid Nelson, the court files allege. The Harieds showed the checks to Flatness.

His pay for collecting rent and managing the apartments, according to an agreement, was to be $300 a month, but the court files say the checks were for more.

On Jan. 13 of this year, Flatness met with Reid Nelson, who said he had managed the apartments for 10 years. Court files say he told Flatness the usual amount of the checks to his father and to Peterson were $1,000 but sometimes $500 if there wasn’t enough money in the account.

She showed him the checks written to “cash,” and, according to the court files, he said those were to people who made repairs. When Flatness pointed out they were endorsed by The Nasty Habit or Aragon bars, Nelson “admitted that he had been taking the money out for himself, not apartment expenses.”

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

He can still turn it around, maybe another sort of institution after jail. His PO can help set it up. Then he gets to pay it all back.

mw

Gunnar Berg said...

Well, the problem is that he doesn't have enough money to maintain his "lifestyle". Max penalty is 10 years on multiple accounts.

Margadant, what's the old gunslinger's opinion on his odds?

Margadant said...

Not enough info to venture a guess. Were a substantial fee to be laid on the desk, at this point I'd advise plead not guilty, keep your mouth shut, and let's see who the A.G.'s office sends down to prosecute. It's motion practice time.

I can conceive of some circumstances which, if even half were fact and could be proved, could improve a plea/sentence situation. Of course, these "neighbors" are done in Oakwood, no matter what happens.

Silk Hope said...

he ought to be in jail for the sport coat and tie alone! Oh yeah get a hair cut.

JG