Elijah Meason

Staff Report

Elijah Meason, 27, of Los Alamos pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized use or theft of the card of another and two counts of forgery July 17 in First Judicial District Court before Judge T. Glenn Ellington.

Meason was granted a conditional discharge, placed on three years of supervised probation and ordered to pay restitution of $839.58 to the victim. He is allowed no contact with the victim and is required to complete the Drug Court program.

The sentence is the result of a global plea agreement reached with Assistant District Attorney Kent Wahlquist. Judge Ellington also allowed for Meason to be released from supervised probation as soon as he has completed Drug Court or an alternative program and paid restitution to the victim in full.

Meason was arrested April 21 by LAPD on forgery and fraud charges. He garnered two additional forgery charges and two more fraud charges all connected to the same victim after he allegedly took checks without her knowledge and used them to make purchases at Smith’s Marketplace and Metzger’s Do It Best Hardware Store. According to police and court records, Meason bought items from both businesses and shortly afterward returned the items for cash.