International Falls man sentenced for adding a few extra zeros to amount on funeral gift check

An International Falls man was sentenced in Redwood County District Court after being caught adding a few extra zeroes to the amount of a check originally written as a funeral gift.

According to court records, on March 4 of this year, a Redwood Falls Police Officer met with a woman stated that in 2007, she had written a check for $25 to help a family pay for funeral expenses. Thirteen years later, in 2020, the woman said $2,500 was withdrawn from her account, with the check being the same one she had written in 2007. Although it was the same check, whoever had cashed it had changed the date from 2007 to 2009, and had changed the amount from $25 to $2,500.

Investigation by the Redwood Falls Police Department showed the money had been deposited into the account of another woman who had passed away in February, 2020. That woman’s son, William Rickey Newman, age 42, of International Falls, was the beneficiary of her account, and had found the original check while cleaning out his mother’s residence.

Earlier this month, William Rickey Newman was sentenced to local confinement 365 days, stayed 365 days for one two years, two years supervised probation, and fees and fines of $285.