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Lawson made up most of the names of the payees for the
checks that he wrote. Wright or Lawson wrote most of the 282
checks that Lawson cashed. Lawson usually endorsed the
fictitious names with altered handwriting, countersigned his name
with his normal signature, and then went to Southern National to
cash the checks.
The bank did not always require Lawson to endorse the
checks, but he did so if asked. Lawson told the bank tellers
that he was cashing the checks for people who had sold livestock
to Reaves Livestock and were waiting for him at the Reaves
Livestock barn, but were too busy or lacked the proper
identification to cash the checks.
At a time not specified in the record, several of the
tellers became concerned about the fact that Lawson was cashing
Reaves Livestock account checks payable to third parties. They
told Don Ballard (Ballard), bank manager for Southern National,
what Lawson was doing. Ballard telephoned Mr. Reaves and told
him Lawson had been cashing checks which were not payable to
Lawson. Mr. Reaves gave permission to Ballard for Southern
National to cash those checks. Ballard then authorized the
tellers to cash the checks.
Lawson initially tried to conceal the check cashing scheme
from respondent. He told Thomas W. Bozeman (Bozeman),
respondent's agent, that he had not endorsed the checks, that he
could not recall that Mr. Reaves had asked him to endorse checks
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