On Aug. 22, Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested Carla Nicole Wake, 35, a resident of Eddie Penton Road in Bush. Wake was booked into the Washington Parish Jail charged with 38 counts of forgery. No bond has been set at this time.

In July, the District Attorney’s worthless check division began receiving returned checks on an account that had been recently opened. An investigation by Washington Parish detectives revealed that Wake had allegedly duped a boyfriend into opening a bank account with the promise that she would deposit funds from a $250,000 trust fund she had received from an ex-boyfriend. According to the sheriff’s office, he believed her, opened the account, and assumed that Wake was depositing funds into the account. She allegedly was not depositing funds and did not have authority to sign checks on the account. However, the sheriff’s office reports she was signing checks without her current boyfriend’s knowledge. Detectives were able to locate and arrest Wake at a local business as she was allegedly in the process of attempting to cash yet another check.

Wake has a lengthy past criminal history of arrests for forgery, issuing worthless checks and theft. She has been arrested and booked into the Washington Parish Jail ten times prior to the current arrest, making a total of eleven times she has been in the Washington Parish Jail. The earliest arrest was in July 2008 and the latest was June 2016 on charges of forgery and theft.

Sheriff Randy Seal said, “Kudos to our detectives for arresting this career criminal once again and putting her in jail. She obviously has no regard for the law or for any person other than herself. I hope she will be our guest in jail for a long time. Jails are designed for people like her who have proven over and over that they cannot function in a free society.”