Vilas County Court report
Forgery, intimidation counts
bring prison and jail terms

A 28-year-old Eagle River man convicted of forgery and intimidating a witness was sentenced last week to 23 months of prison and jail confinement.

John F. McDermott, who wrote thousands of dollars in bad checks on a closed account belonging to his mother, will spend 13 months in prison for forgery followed by 10 months in jail for attempting to persuade his mother not to provide information to police.

Vilas County Circuit Judge Neal A. Nielsen III ordered that restitution for the forged checks be paid in 30 days. The prison term will be followed by two years of extended supervision.

According to the complaint, McDermott was arrested after a man who sold a snowmobile to him turned a forged check for $454 over to police in December 2007.

The forged checks written by McDermott included values as high as $1,100, $475 and $450. The 21-count complaint included charges of both forgery and misdemeanor theft.

As part of the plea agreement, all but two of the forgery charges were dismissed but read into the record for sentencing purposes. He was convicted of the three felony counts April 26.

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