A Tacoma man remained in custody Friday after he was arrested for allegedly using approximately $8,000 worth of fake checks to buy lumber from stores in Centralia and Tumwater.
Stewart M. Riggs, 57, was booked into the Lewis County Jail at about 5:58 p.m. Feb. 10. He made a preliminary appearance in Lewis County Superior Court on Wednesday.
Riggs faces two counts of forgery, two counts of second-degree theft and one count of second-degree trafficking in stolen property. All are considered Class C felonies punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines.
During the preliminary hearing, Judge Joely Yeager set bail at $20,000 cash or bond, along with conditions of release that include no contact with Lincoln Creek Lumber.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott Jackson noted the defendant’s extensive criminal and warrant history, and said Riggs had served a prison sentence from 2014 until sometime in 2020.
According to court documents, Riggs was previously convicted of possession of a stolen vehicle and second-degree identity theft in 2014, along with earlier crimes including forgery and theft.
Rachael Tiller, Riggs’s attorney for the day, said Riggs had told her he was a full-time student in Tacoma who needed to be physically present in class.
Tiller noted the defendant’s stable residential information and said his last failure to appear in court was over a decade ago.
According to court documents, Centralia police investigated two checks after responding to the business’s forgery complaints. One check had Riggs’s driver’s license number printed on it.
After obtaining Riggs’s license photo, the investigating officer matched his image with a suspect captured in security footage of the Centralia store’s parking lot.
The checks Riggs allegedly used were drawn on a KeyBank account that didn’t exist.
According to police, Riggs passed the first check on Jan. 25 for $3,387.63. He passed the second on Jan. 26 for $754.42.
A detective later spoke with an employee at the Tumwater location, who said she had received a call from a woman claiming Riggs had recently purchased materials using a forged check.
According to court documents, the employees located the stolen materials on a website that listed the woman’s name under the items.
Upon contact at his home in Tacoma, Riggs allegedly admitted to creating the phony checks.
He is scheduled for an arraignment on Feb. 26.
