Legal Question in Criminal Law in Illinois

My 28 year old sister signed up for a job on a popular job website, she was to sign different people up to a website for coupons and other things. She received her check in the mail and it stated that she cash the check and send them money back because they had over paid her. About a month later my sister was arrested for Identity theft and forgery. The detective called her to his office stating he needed to talk with her and she voluntarily went. He presented her with the charges and asked her who made the checks, and she let him know everything about the business and how she was hired by them online. She let him know she had everything from the FedEx that the check came in along with every email and also the application she had to fill out on the website. The police said that the business was legit but the routing number and bank account number belonged to someone else. She spent two and a half weeks in jail before we could come up with $2500 to bail her out. My sister never has been in trouble; she works full-time, is a full-time student, a wife and has two daughters. She is also a veteran of the United States Army who was in the process of re-enlisting which she will not be able to because of these charges. She has been going to court every month and has since received two more checks in which she turned over to the police. I guess my questions are how was she even able to be arrested for this as a crime when she got paid from a job? How was she to know that the account belonged to someone else and not the company? Can someone please help us? Thank you.

Asked on 8/26/11, 4:10 pm

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Your sister needs to hire counsel locally to review the state's case and to determine whether a dismissal is in order.

Answered on 8/26/11, 6:16 pm

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