Bad Idea

On the list of things you really shouldn’t do is forge papers from the court that has sentencing authority over you.

Dexter L. Berry, 29, an inmate at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, is suspected of forging a document in order to reduce his sentence.

The jail received an amended abstract of judgment, purportedly issued from Tippecanoe Circuit Court on May 22, 2007.

Staff in Circuit Court received a telephone call last week from a staff member at the prison attempting to confirm the abstract.

“We had nothing in the file,” Amber Laffoon, the court reporter, said. “That was nothing that I had typed.”

Circuit Court Judge Don Daniel entered an order Tuesday finding that the documents are “false and deceptive, and that said documents appear to be the result of forgery.” He ordered DOC to follow terms of an April 17, 2006, order sentencing Berry to 15 years in prison.

. . .

“Mr. Berry is one of our more prolific correspondents” in the DOC, Phillips said. “He asks for a lot of different records.”

“One of our more prolific correspondents.” — What a great quote. There are always a couple of inmates who make up a significant chunk of the paperwork.