Middlefield Village Police arrested a woman who was allegedly a member of a smash and grab ring following a high-speed chase after she tried to cash a bogus check at Middlefield Bank, then dumped thousands of dollars in a ditch before being caught.
** Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect a correction to the incident date. **
Middlefield Village Police arrested a woman who was allegedly a member of a smash-and-grab ring following a high-speed chase after she tried to cash a bogus check at Middlefield Bank, then dumped thousands of dollars in a ditch before being caught.
Leah Jo Claire Music, 52, from Ormond Beach, Fla., had cashed one check at the Solon MB office before driving to Geauga County, Lt. Aaron Graley said in a phone interview.
She was refused service at the Newbury Township MB branch Aug. 30. When she presented a check the same day at the MB branch in Middlefield Village, personnel noticed she did not have the proper identification and called the village police, Graley said.
Police Chief Joe Tucholski said Music was allegedly part of a smash-and-grab ring that had been lifting purses and wallets and draining accounts in multiple states.
“In one state, she was (reportedly) doing $92,000 a day,” he said during a recent Middlefield Village Council meeting.
Graley said Music was getting into her car and leaving the bank as the police cruisers pulled up. When they tried a traffic stop, she took off south on state Route 608, then turned north on state Route 528 and west on state Route 322, sometimes hitting speeds up to 120 miles per hour, he said.
“We were able to coordinate with the (Geauga County) Sheriff’s Office to spike her car,” Graley said, referring to the practice of laying down a strip of spikes in the road. “Once she lost the driver’s side front tire, she quickly slowed to 60 miles per hour and I was able to pull in front of her.”
Other law enforcement vehicles boxed her in and forced her to stop, whereupon she was arrested for failure to comply, a third-degree felony, he said.
Music, complaining of possible injuries, was transported via ambulance to University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, which released her immediately and she was taken to the Geauga County Safety Center, Graley said.
Further investigation revealed a warrant pending for Music for probation violation in Pennsylvania, he said.
MB personnel said she was trying to use identification from a second party to cash a check written on a third party’s account.
The chase was recorded on a police dash camera. When Graley was reviewing the video later, he saw Music had tossed something out of her window just before being stopped.
Upon revisiting the site, he found a pouch containing about $19,000 in cash in the ditch.
“The weeds were waist high or someone might have seen it,” he said Tuesday.
Music had not been indicted as of Tuesday afternoon because the investigation is ongoing, he added.
“We are still compiling information. There are so many victims. We’ll put it all together and they will decide how to prosecute,” Graley said, adding there may be state or federal charges since there are reports of similar crimes by Music in multiple states.
“It is a good case,” he said.
