CROWN POINT | A former probation department secretary forged a Lake Superior Court judge's signature to stop the garnishment of her wages, according to a Lake County police report.
The garnishment was ordered out of the woman's county paycheck last September to pay off a more than $21,000 debt she owed to Fairlane Credit LLC, court records show.
No charges had been filed against the woman as of Friday. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said there is insufficient evidence to prove it was the woman who forged the order.
The doctored order was discovered late last year when an attorney for Fairlane Credit LLC, the plaintiff in the credit case against the woman, complained it was not receiving its money.
Lake Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Tavitas had granted an order Sept. 6 to garnish the woman's wages to pay off the debt, court records show.
Thirteen days later, an order reversing the garnishment was filed in the clerk's office with what appeared to be Tavitas' signature, according to a document file stamped Sept. 19.
Tavitas and her magistrate were out of town at an Indiana judicial conference Sept. 19, according to Tavitas' secretary.
The woman used her position with the Lake County Criminal Court Probation Department to sign Tavitas' name and file stamp the order, a Lake County police report alleges.
When contacted by telephone, the woman said she did not know anything about the police report and needed to speak with her husband.
The woman no longer works for the probation department, an employee told The Times. A department supervisor did not a return a phone call seeking comment.
Tavitas declined comment via a secretary in her office.
But, the judge told police that she did not authorize anyone to sign her name or prepare the order and sought full criminal charges against the woman. Tavitas recused herself Friday from the woman's civil case, records show.
The garnishment of the woman's wages was reinstated at an emergency hearing in February.
At that hearing, an attorney representing Fairlane Credit alleged that the woman photocopied an earlier garnishment release form, changed the filing date and then sent it to her job to stop the money being taken out of her wages, court records say.
