Sisters freed of theft charge

Posted: Tuesday, December 15^th, 2015. 7:49 p.m. CST

By Aaron Humes: 22 year old Chelsea Martinez and 21 year old Monique Martinez, along with 29 year old Ervin Zelaya, had charges of theft against them dropped after the police officer whose ATM card was stolen decided to settle the matter out of court. The charges were struck out by Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer.

Charges of theft were laid after the two sisters claimed they found the card on the street and then allegedly went on a spending spree costing almost $1,000.  Zelaya was later charged with 18 counts of theft and 18 counts of forgery for actually swiping the cop’s card 18 times in a one day period during the spree.

The police later tracked the culprits after viewing a surveillance camera at the store of a Chinese businesswoman where Zelaya took the card from Chelsea Martinez and then went shopping with it.

Police Corporal Bonifacio Rash chose to enter into an amicable out of court settlement. He collected a total of $700 from Zelaya. The balance of $265.00 was given back to him from the police who has confiscated the remaining balance of money and held it as exhibit after the store withheld the money from the group.

In court, the oldest sister, Chelsea said that when they found Rash’s ATM card, she was the one who took the initiative to try and reach the holder of the card through social media.  When she did, she told him that they had found the card and wanted to return it.

She blamed Zelaya for stealing the card but insisted that they only found the card and did not steal it.

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