Jury convicts wife of forging checks while her husband was serving in Iraq

By PAT PHEIFER, Star Tribune

Last update: May 2, 2008 - 8:51 PM

Dana M. Kieser deceived and defrauded her husband when he was at his most vulnerable, serving in Iraq with the Minnesota National Guard, a Ramsey County jury heard Friday.

She closed out John Kieser's retirement and college-savings accounts, forged his name on two checks totaling almost $25,000, bought a home in Fargo, N.D., and sold their home in Maplewood -- all without his knowledge or consent, prosecutor Laura Rosenthal said.

"This is not a complicated case," the assistant county attorney said in her closing argument. "This defendant's actions crossed the line."

The jury agreed and returned after just an hour and a half of deliberations with guilty verdicts on two counts of check forgery.

Dana Kieser showed little emotion when the verdicts were read. John Kieser was in the courtroom, too, but he clearly took no joy in them. He was served with divorce papers while home on leave in early January 2007 but still held out hope for reconciliation, even two months after his tour of duty ended in July.

The couple's contested divorce is pending in North Dakota. Dana Kieser said during testimony that she has custody of their two boys, ages 6 and 4.

Defense attorney Ken Kohler tried to convince the jury that Dana Kieser had no criminal intent when she took the funds from his IRA and 529 plan.

She honestly believed that a power-of-attorney document her husband had prepared before his deployment allowed her to withdraw the money, Kohler said. She used it -- along with money from her own 401(k) account -- to pay off a second mortgage on the Fargo house that was in both their names, he said.

But Dana Kieser testified that she now knows the power of attorney only went into effect if John Kieser became "physically disabled, mentally incompetent or otherwise incapacitated."

"I believed 'incapacitated' meant unavailable," she said.

The prosecutor wasn't buying it, though. Rosenthal said that Dana Kieser left her husband essentially homeless and that he never has and never will live in the Fargo house.

District Judge James Clark set sentencing for June 12. Dana Kieser is unlikely to serve any time in prison. The presumptive sentence for check forgery is a stayed sentence. The amount of restitution would be determined by probation officials.

Pat Pheifer • 651-298-1551

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