Opinion ID: 161699
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Scott Center's Pickup Truck and the Check Forgery Scheme

Text: 8 Officers also asked Walters about the pickup truck. Walters admitted the truck was not his, but he insisted it belonged to a friend, whose name Walters would not give. Officers ran checks to determine its owner and whether it was stolen. They discovered that it was registered to Carol Eggett of Bountiful, Utah, and that it was not listed as stolen on the FBI's National Crime Information Center computer. 9 Subsequent investigation, in September 1999, revealed that Eggett had bought the $11,000 truck for her grandson, Scott Center, because Center's poor credit history prevented him from financing it himself. Eggett bought it for Center, in part, because he had just finished drug and alcohol rehabilitation and she hoped it would enable him to keep a legal job and not begin using drugs again. 10 Center testified at the January 2000 suppression hearing that Walters took the truck as leverage to get Center to pay a $2000 debt owed to Walters after a payroll-check forgery scheme failed. Center explained that in June 1999 Walters gave him and an individual known as Demon-Dog twenty blank payroll checks which had been stolen from a construction company. Center, who had experience passing forged checks, was supposed to teach Demon-Dog the trade. Center later discovered that Walters expected them to cash the checks for at least $500 each and that he demanded a 20% cut, for a total of $2000. 11 When Center and Demon-Dog attempted to cash the first check, however, Center felt the bank teller was stalling and told Demon-Dog they should leave. Demon-Dog insisted on staying, so Center exited the bank and waited for Demon-Dog in the truck parked outside. As police arrived, Center left. Demon-Dog was arrested. 12 When Center called Walters later that afternoon to explain what happened, Walters told him, You better not run into me. Center knew of Walters's reputation and criminal history, including convictions for multiple assaults and illegal weapons possession. At 2 a.m. that morning, Center was lured by a young woman into an apartment where Walters and Demon-Dog were waiting. They told Center that they were going to have fun with him. Walters had a hammer on his belt; Center had heard him say he used it to crack ribs. Demon-Dog hit Center, breaking his nose. They let Center leave without further injury, though, after he paid a ransom of $200. 13 A few days later some of Walters's people caught Center and brought him to Walters at a car wash because Center had not yet paid Walters the $2000 from the check forgery scheme. They drove to Walters's trailer, where Walters demanded the $2000 while he menacingly wiped down a gun and placed it in front of Center. 14 Walters eventually let Center go that day without having paid the debt. 15 One morning a few days later Center was sleeping in a chair and was awakened by Walters, who was pointing a knife at him. With Walters was Julie Perry, the woman who had stamped the signature on the stolen payroll checks. Ostensibly, Perry convinced Walters to let her and Center go raise money. After a while, Perry persuaded Center to loan her his truck for about an hour. Perry never returned the truck to Center, and when he saw her a few days later she told him she had given the truck to Walters. 16 Days after that, Center saw Walters with the truck, and Walters told him that once he paid the $2000 Walters would return his truck. Center retorted that he would try to come up with $2000, but he would not pay Walters extortion money for the truck. A couple of months later, in December 1999, a Salt Lake City detective found the truck, stripped down, in a vacant lot in the warehouse district. There was visible damage to the interior of the truck and numerous parts had been removed, including the tires, rims, and seats. 17