Legal secretary in Merrillville charged with 42 felonies in expungement fraud scheme

Heather Ann Textor of Lowell, Indiana, faces 42 felony charges after allegedly taking thousands from clients seeking record expungements. One victim spent a weekend in jail as a result.

Former legal secretary arrested after three-year fraud investigation in Indiana

A former legal secretary at a Merrillville law firm has been arrested and charged with 42 felony counts and three misdemeanours following a three-year investigation, abc7chicago.com reports. Heather Ann Textor, of Lowell, Indiana, is accused of collecting money from clients who believed she was processing their criminal record expungements — work that was never carried out.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Glen Fifield said many of those defrauded did not realise what had happened until years after paying Textor. "Several of the victims in this case did not realise they were victims until years later," Fifield said. "They just assume that their case had been adjudicated, that their criminal history or traffic tickets had been expunged and they weren't."

Textor faces charges of fraud, forgery, counterfeiting and theft. Authorities said at least one person spent a weekend in jail because an expungement that had been paid for was never filed.

"This person had no care for the victims that she had taken advantage of. It was all about her. It was all about her getting money," Fifield said.

One named victim, Lamar Cheairs, said he approached the law firm in 2023 seeking help to clear his record after serving time for offences committed when he was younger. He paid Textor $980. He only discovered that no work had been done approximately a year later, when he attempted to legally purchase a firearm.

"It's really diabolical. Because I would have never thought in a million years that if I go to a lawyer's office, where you're supposed to feel safe and secure, I went there, and the fact to just get tricked and go through that — it was wild," Cheairs said.

Cheairs said he was eventually able to complete his expungement and pursue the career he had planned, but said the delay created ongoing difficulties as he works to support his family.

"You just don't do people like that — to take everybody's money and give them a sense of false hope that everything is fine when, in all actuality, it's not," he said.

Prosecutors said a partner at the Merrillville law firm cooperated fully with investigators and confirmed that Textor had been dismissed in 2023. Representatives of the firm declined to comment. Textor is scheduled to appear in court next Tuesday.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)