Today, Ruben Tavarez III, age 29, of Visalia, was sentenced to ten years of state prison for crimes committed between October 23, 2003 and December 12,2004. In addition, Tavarez was ordered to pay restitution in an amount which will be determined later.

On September May 2, 2005, Defendant entered a plea of no contest to 29 felony charges in three separate cases and admitted a violation of probation. These included one count of transporting narcotics while armed with a handgun, one count of unlawful taking of a car, 15 counts of forgery, 4 counts of commercial burglary, 3 counts of identity theft, 2 counts of unauthorized possession of account information, one count of felon in possession of a firearm, one count of possession of deceptive identification document and one count of unauthorized possession of identification. Defendant was convicted of being armed while committing the crimes. These charges arose from the following:

In one case, in October 2003, officers from Tulare Police Department were dispatched to the Palace Food Depot where defendant was attempting to pass a check on an account that did not exist. Upon being contacted defendant gave a false name and had in his possession a checkbook belonging to the victim. Numerous checks were located in the defendant’s wallet made payable to different businesses in the Tulare area. Officers also located receipts for merchandise which officers later determined were purchased by defendant with the fraudulent checks.

In a separate case, in January 2004, defendant entered Ace Cash Express in Tulare and attempted to cash a counterfeit check. The check was purported to be from Linder Equipment company but when employees contacted Linder Equipment company they learned the check was counterfeit.


On December 12, 2004, an officer of the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office stopped a car defendant was driving because the license plate was registered to a different car than the one defendant was driving. Defendant gave officers a false name. Officers learned the car was stolen. A search of the defendant revealed methamphetamine as well as an identification belonging to a victim. A .22 caliber Ruger revolver was discovered under the driver’s seat and five cell phones were located in the glove compartment. In the trunk were two laptop computers, two combination copier/scanner/printer, copies of $20 bills, and several duffel bags containing 19 fraudulent identifications, ten social security cards, numerous checks, including five different checkbooks and materials to manufacture identifications and checks. The identifications and checks belonged to numerous victims. Included in the stolen items was a check to one of the victims for $10,545.80 which victim had never received. The evidence connected defendant to various other crimes committed. Further investigation revealed that the defendant had cashed numerous checks and used numerous identification cards and accounts which belonged to numerous victims. The investigation also revealed that the defendant used the information in his possession to commit identity theft of various victims. A forensic examination of the computers revealed numerous identifications in various stages of the manufacturing process as well as scanned US currency. It was also learned one of the computers was stolen from the Sequoia Regional Cancer Center.

The investigations were conducted by the Tulare Police Department, Officers Rocha and Watson and the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department, Detective King.

The prosecution was conducted by Deputy District Attorney, Marguerite Grant, with the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office White Collar Crime Unit.

Visalia, CA -
 

Contact Person: DON GALLIAN, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY 733-6411