2 charged with identity theft

By Brent Jones
May 7, 2008

A federal grand jury indicted two Baltimore men and a city woman yesterday on charges of stealing mail and using the victims' Social Security numbers and other identification information to cash checks, prosecutors said.

Joseph Lawrence, 43, Maurice Racks, 53 and Tara Wagner, 37, are accused of assuming the identities of at least 31 people from April through October of last year and face charges of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

The indictment alleges that the defendants created false identification documents in the names of the victims by combining their own personal information with the victims' information. The defendants then used the false identification documents to cash checks, according to the indictment. Prosecutors say some of the victims lived on Dudley Avenue in Baltimore and on Foxcreek Court in Owings Mills. Lawrence and Wagner could face a maximum of 25 years in prison if convicted; Racks could face a maximum of 10 years.