Credit card fraud alleged in suspect's payment of bail at Ramsey County jail
Investigators say suspect's sister stole number while on the job at U.S. Bank
By Mara H. Gottfried
mgottfried@pioneerpress.comUpdated: 07/10/2009 11:14:31 PM CDT
A gangster escaped from jail in a way that longtime cops say they've never seen — apparently through credit card fraud.
The Ramsey County sheriff's office contends that Corey Nathan Hobbs, 24, of St. Paul, posted bail with a credit card number stolen by his sister, a U.S. Bank employee, according to an affidavit for a search warrant.
The net started closing on Hobbs shortly after he was released from the Ramsey County Jail on Monday.
A Ramsey County sheriff's analyst was conducting routine monitoring of recordings made from jail phones and heard something potentially incriminating, according to the affidavit.
Hobbs was talking to his sister, Candace Ann Hobbs, and asked why the first credit card — which Corey Hobbs told a bail bondsman belonged to his grandmother — she used to post bail had been declined.
"She states that it is probably because they charged so much on it," the affidavit said. The second card she used was accepted. "Candace then goes on to state the credit card she used is OK as the people left for Jamaica the day before."
Signs posted at the jail phones say conversations are recorded, and inmates and the person they're calling hear a recorded message saying as much before calls are connected, said sheriff's office Director Steve Lydon, who oversees the East Metro Real-time Information Center and the career criminal unit.
Both credit cards were U.S. Bank accounts and the one used to post bail belongs to a man who lives in Kansas, the affidavit said. Candace Hobbs, who hasn't been arrested but is under investigation, worked in customer service for U.S. Bank and "as part of her job function, would have routine access to credit card information," the affidavit said.
Candace Hobbs, 25, of St. Paul, has been terminated from her job, U.S. Bank spokesman Steve Dale said Friday. He said the bank is cooperating with police and added, "I can assure you that no customer lost any money as a result of anything."
The sheriff's analyst heard the conversation between the Hobbs siblings about one hour after Corey Hobbs had posted bail and been released, said Sgt. Joann Springer. How Candace Hobbs knew the credit card holder was in Jamaica and how she selected him is part of the investigation, and Springer declined to talk about them.
Springer, who has worked at the sheriff's office for more than 28 years, said she had never seen a case like this.
"They're getting more ingenious, unfortunately," Springer said.
Police in Cottage Grove and West St. Paul are also checking into Corey Hobbs on allegations of credit card fraud, Springer said.
"Multiple agencies, through communication, detected they had the same bad guy," Lydon said.
Cottage Grove police are investigating Hobbs and his girlfriend for using a fraudulent credit card to buy more than $1,616 in machinery and equipment at a Menards in May and June, the affidavit said. West St. Paul police said they are looking into a similar case at another Menards in April.
Police from those two cities, along with St. Paul police and the Washington County sheriff's office drug task force, helped execute search warrants Thursday. They arrested Corey Hobbs and his girlfriend, Adrienne Nicole Nichols, at a West Side home.
The Ramsey County sheriff's office also considered Corey Hobbs dangerous: He's an East Side Boys gang member with a long criminal history, and Springer wrote in the affidavit that he has access to firearms.
"The big thing was getting him off the street yesterday so he couldn't do any more damage to citizens," Springer said Friday.
Hobbs is one of 18 members of the East Side Boys and Selby Siders gangs against whom the city is seeking a temporary injunction for the annual Rondo Days Festival and Parade. The injunction, to be heard Wednesday, would restrict the 18 from hanging out with each other, using gang signs, wearing gang clothing and other activities in a "safety zone" around the festival next Saturday.
Hobbs was booked into the Ramsey County Jail on Thursday on suspicion of fraudulently using a credit card and identity theft, along with the assault charge he had been in jail for earlier. Nichols, 21, was arrested on suspicion of fraudulently using a credit card and on warrants for theft and disorderly conduct. No new charges were filed against the couple Friday.
The case that led to Hobbs bailing out of jail Monday occurred July 3. The Ramsey County attorney's office charged him with second-degree assault.
Hobbs' ex-girlfriend told police she saw him while driving. Hobbs used his car to ram hers four times, nearly causing it to flip, starting at Western and Como avenues until she sought safety at a gas station at 933 Minnehaha Ave., about a mile away, according to the criminal complaint.
Another adult and three children younger than 5 were in the car, the complaint said. Hobbs' former girlfriend told police he punched her in the face at the gas station before she and the children ran and hid in the store cooler until police arrived, the complaint said.
When police arrested Hobbs, he was yelling that the woman had stolen his car, the complaint said.
Prosecutors asked for $50,000 bail when Hobbs made his first court appearance Monday. Ramsey County District Judge John Guthmann set bail at $30,000, according to a court register.
In court Friday to re-address bail in the assault case, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Joan Tusa asked Ramsey County District Judge James Clark to set bail at $75,000. She said she believed Hobbs had shown "complete disregard for the court process and the privilege of bail."
But a public defender, Monique Salvetti, said that if prosecutors thought Hobbs had committed a new offense, he should be charged and bail set accordingly. She said it would be premature to ask the court to change bail in an existing case.
Clark set bail at $60,000 for Hobbs.
As of late evening, Hobbs was still in jail.
Candace Hobbs couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
A man who answered the door at a home she listed as her address with her employer as of June 30, according to the affidavit, said she didn't live there and he didn't know where she lived. No one came to the door at Corey Hobbs' home.
) I had to go to court 4 times over the course of a year... I charged the indemnitor $150 for every appearance and he paid it all... the charge was finally dismissed because the card holder never showed up on the last court date.... what a wonderful group we deal with often... that happened to have been the only charge I had failed to get a signed authorization on and it bit me in the azz.... won't happen again... and it took me over a year to get all the money, but the indemnitor finally did cough up all of it... eventually... sometimes, even the best of us makes an error that we need to fix... had I taken my own advice and been "ever vigilant", this wouldn't have happened...