Woman charged with felony

A 31-year-old Mullan woman was arrested on a felony charge last week for allegedly writing two checks on a closed bank account, the Osburn Police Department reported.

Christina Axtman was taken into police custody Friday after Osburn Police Lieutenant Darell Braaten and Shoshone County Deputy John Hirst confronted her at her home about the account.

Axtman denied to police that the account was closed when she wrote the checks on Dec. 1, according to Braaten's police report. She was released on her own recognizance Monday after appearing for a felony arraignment in Magistrate Court.

Axtman is scheduled to return to court on March 20 for a preliminary hearing.

The bank account in question was allegedly closed in September 2013, Braaten said in his report. Braaten obtained a search warrant on Dec. 30 to investigate Axtman's bank history and discovered the account was closed.

Axtman reportedly told police she closed the account in late January or early February.

The two checks - one in the amount of $64.39 and the other for $212.10 - were written at Stein's Family Foods in Osburn. An employee of the store contacted police on Dec. 15 when the checks were returned from Wells Fargo, Braaten's report said.

Stein's employees apparently attempted reaching Axtman by phone, but were unable to leave messages on the full voice mail box.

According to the police report, Axtman said the phone number had been disconnected and that she would have paid the checks had she known earlier. The checks were written during a period when Stein's Family Foods could not accept debit or credit cards for payment due to a security breach.

Stein's was first notified of its compromised payment processing system on Monday, Nov. 25 by Ray Sprinkle, CEO of URM Stores Inc. URM is a grocery wholesaler in the Pacific Northwest that also provides a system to process debit and credit card payments.

A week later, customers could use credit cards as proper security measures were taken to fix the compromised system, which reportedly resulted from a cyber attack.

Axtman was featured in the News-Press last Nov. 10 because of an inspiring personal story she shared of overcoming injuries incurred while allegedly serving her country. Military sources later refuted most of Axtman's claims, saying she had been dishonest in her portrayal of events.