Woman arrested on fraud, ID theft charge
A 25-year-old woman was arrested Monday on a federal indictment returned Oct. 14 in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas charging her with fraud and identity theft, according to court records.
Claire Batsell was arrested at her home and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Felix Recio Tuesday. Recio set a $30,000 unsecured bond with the condition that she pay municipal court tickets and that her employment be verified, according to court records.
Brownsville police detectives first arrested Batsell last year on 39 charges ranging from theft and credit card abuse.
At the time, police charged that she was working out of Dr. Lorenzo Pelly's office, was opening accounts with CareCredit and was making unauthorized charges to cover her theft of money from the office, according to Brownsville Herald archives.
Police suspected that she was altering checks from Pelly to his patients and making the checks payable to her, archives further state.
The recent indictment states that Batsell is accused of stealing more than $1,000.
Batsell faces as much as 15 years in prison if convicted for fraudulent means of identification, 10 years if convicted for fraud in connection with an unauthorized access device and two years if convicted of aggravated identity theft.
Each of the three counts also carries a maximum $250,000 fine, according to an announcement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
eperez-trevino@brownsvilleherald.com
