LIHU‘E — A Kapa‘a man is facing a number of felony charges for writing a series of fraudulent checks over the course of the last four months.
Mitchell Hughes, 27, faces four separate cases in Fifth Circuit Court in Lihu‘e, where he appeared for an arraignment on Tuesday morning.
The most substantial complaint charges him with 14 felonies, including theft in the first and second degrees, identity theft in the second degree, forgery in the second degree, and unauthorized possession of confidential personal information, by writing checks to himself using another man’s checkbook.
According to the criminal complaint, Hughes wrote four checks to himself in November 2022, ranging in value from $200 to $420, for a total of more than $1,000. All these charges are either class B or C felonies.
Another man, Jacob Lewis, also faces charges for using the same man’s checkbook.
A separate complaint alleges that Hughes wrote a series of bad checks at Costco in early 2023 — valued at more than $7,000.
The complaint alleges Hughes wrote these checks to the wholesaler, “knowing that (they) would not be honored by the maker or the drawee.”
The alleged incidents seem to have grown in boldness, beginning with a $388 check on Jan. 25, 2023, and increasing to a $1,705.26 check the following day. The day after that, Jan. 27, he bought $2,595.52 of merchandise using a bad check, and on Jan. 30 he used another bad check to make a purchase of $2,565.43. He faces 10 charges for the incidents, including felony theft in the second degree.
Hughes was arrested on March 14, after which prosecutors filed another complaint charging him with resisting arrest and assaulting a law enforcement officer.
His bail was set at $33,000 for the first case, $1,510 in the second, and $5,000 in the third. He is currently in custody at Kaua‘i Community Correctional Center.
A fourth, more minor complaint, charges him with theft in the fourth degree for shoplifting from a Texaco station.
He is next set to appear in court Wednesday morning for a preliminary hearing on the charges related to resisting arrest.
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Guthrie Scrimgeour, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-0329 or gscrimgeour@thegardenisland.com.
