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Show Roqers quilty of writing bad checks By JUDY JENSEN Asst. Managing Editor FARMINGTON A man claiming he wrote bad checks to buy medication for his terminal ter-minal illness found Judge Douglas Comaby to be a formidable foe in 2nd District Court Tuesday. Tues-day. "I'm not going to let you alibi your way out of the fact you committed a crime," said Cor-naby Cor-naby after a long dissertation by Thomas Lynn Rogers explaining his circumstances. "No matter what you say, I'm going to twist it around until you say to the court, 'I'm guilty. I'm going to be lenient because I understand the circumstances, but I make no allowance for bad checks," continued the judge. Rogers, 49, of 390 W. 1500 South, Bountiful, pleaded guilty to a third-degree felony for writing $913.03 in bad checks to Dick's Market in Centerville. Rogers received a total of $825 cash back on the three separate transactions which took place in August 1990. He told the court he has been diagnosed with cancer, and the medication he was taking interfered with his ability to think clearly. "I was not very functional. Between March and November I went through $36,000. I was really a loony. Nobody in their right mind would have allowed this to happen," Rogers told the court. He went on to explain he had tried to work out the problem with Dick's Market, but was unable to reach an agreement. As he continued his story, Rogers insisted he had done everything he could to take care of the problem. Judge Cornaby asked why he had not responded to requests to pay off the debt. "When you have a check returned for insufficient insuffi-cient funds, if you don't make it good within 14 days the law assumes it was a criminal act," said Comaby. Rogers again went into a lengthy discussion of how he had tried to resolve the problem. ' Tm now on new medication and it's not as disruptive," disrup-tive," said Rogers. Comaby reviewed Rogers' history and explained ex-plained the an-esting officer said he had a history of bad checks in the past. Explaining the charge could cany a prison term of up to five years and a fine of $2,000, Comaby told Rogers he was going to be lenient. He ordered Rogers to make restitution to the market, then sentenced him to 30 days in the Davis County Jail and fined him $1,500. The judge suspended the fine and the jail sentence and placed Rogers on an 18-month probation during which time the defendant could not have a checking account. Rogers immediately protested "How can I run my business without a checking account?" he asked. "You want everything your way," responded Judge Cornaby. "But, it's going to be difficult," said Rogers. |