Ward v. State

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Ward, the appellant, was convicted by the court, sitting without a jury, of forging and uttering a worthless check. He asks us to reverse on the claims that testimony as to his having uttered another worthless check should not have been received and that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. Ward was stopped by the police while driving his car.

He tendered the police a driver’s license in the name of Charles Anthony Foley and under that name was tried and convicted by the magistrate for violations of the motor vehicle laws. In his car were found an ink pad, two impression stamps, one that imprinted dates and the other a so-called border stamp, and a checkbook in which was a check on the Carroll National Bank of Westminster made out to Charles A. Foley, signed John R. Mason, indorsed Charles A. Foley, and on which was a red bordered stamp imprint. Inside the red borders were the date May 22, 1958, the word “certified”, and the word “teller” with the initials S. W. before it. In Ward’s room was found a stamp handle which fitted into the back of the border stamp found in his car. ⁵⁶² The check which Ward was charged with forging and uttering was cashed by the Patapsco Pharmacy in Ellicott City, was identical, even as to amount, with the check found in the car, and was returned marked “no such account.” Those at the pharmacy could not recall who presented the check or the circumstances, except that a bottle of scotch whisky was bought with it.

Tepper, the owner of a Baltimore liquor store, testified that in May 1958 (apparently a few days before the cashing of the check in the Patapsco Pharmacy), Ward had presented him a check which he had cashed ,(a check which was identical with the Patapsco Pharmacy check and the one found in Ward’s car, except as to amount), and which also was returned marked “no such account.” He had picked Ward out of a lineup at the Howard County jail as the man who cashed the check. There was expert testimony that the imprints on the checks were made by the stamps found in Ward’s car. Ward at one time told police that the check in the automobile was given him for services as a carpenter by the maker Mason, who, he said, was a well known contractor in Westminster. Ward testified that Foley was a friend of his, although he did not know where he lived, or could be found, and that the ink pad, stamps and checkbook must have been left by Foley in his car.

He denied forging or cashing any check. Intensive search by the police could not turn up either Mason or