A woman believes Adrian McPherson forged a check for $1,150 in September. But her daughter didn't file a complaint.
By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published May 9, 2003
The mother of a Florida State student said she believes former Seminoles quarterback Adrian McPherson stole, forged and cashed a large check from her daughter in early September.
McPherson deposited and received cash back from a $1,150 check from Latisha A. Gulley on Sept. 5, according to bank records that are part of the discovery in felony cases against McPherson.
"He stole the check. My daughter didn't write it," Evelyn Gulley told the Times. "That's a lot of money."
But despite her mother's stance, Gulley, a 20-year-old from Homestead, did not file a complaint, and that, essentially, closed the matter, prosecutors said.
"To her, it was okay he was doing that to her," Evelyn Gulley said. "She's 20. There's nothing I can do about it. I try to do the best I can for her, but she did what she chose to do."
The elder Gulley said she contacted McPherson's parents, who assured her they would make restitution. But she does not know when or if that occurred.
When reached at her Tallahassee home Wednesday night, Latisha Gulley angrily said her mother should "stay out of her ... business."
In late November, McPherson was charged for the alleged theft, forgery and cashing of a $3,500 check from a Tallahassee business, R&R Truck and Auto Accessories. A handwriting analysis indicated he filled out the check.
McPherson also faces a felony charge for bouncing a series of checks he wrote for cash - five at $76 each - to two Tallahassee Publix stores in mid August and a misdemeanor gambling charge for allegedly betting on the Internet last fall.
Records obtained by the Times show McPherson deposited $580.20 of Gulley's check, receiving $569.80 in cash back. He also deposited a $1,000 cashier's check from his parents on Sept. 5 then deposited $1,420 in cash from an unknown source the next day.
Later that day, McPherson essentially emptied his account by withdrawing $2,244.89, a series of transactions prosecutors said they found "interesting" given his account information.
Records show with the exception of direct deposits from FSU (scholarship and Pell grant funds), his SunTrust account rarely showed much money, if any. In addition to the Publix checks he allegedly bounced, he wrote dozens more, for clothes and shoes, according to records, racking up $1,110 in penalties for insufficient funds. His account was closed Nov. 20 with a $296.35 overdraft.
McPherson, who turned 20 on Thursday, has maintained his innocence in all three pending cases.
"It's not a matter of any concern to me," Grady Irvin Jr., McPherson's attorney said about the Gulley check.
The McPhersons would not comment.
The similarity of the circumstances involving Gulley's check and R&R piqued the interest of prosecutors and police, and they decided to investigate in January.
About a month into a three-month gambling probe, police asked Melvin Capers Jr., McPherson's longtime friend from Bradenton, if he knew Latisha Gulley.
"I met her like twice," he said, according to the police report, adding she had said she had a relationship with McPherson.
"Have you ever heard of him ... taking one of her checks and cashing it?" Tallahassee police inspector James Besse asked.
Capers said, "No," but she did give him money at the mall once.
"I'm talking about a large sum of money," Besse said. "He cashed out her checking account."
Prosecutors contacted Gulley and her parents to ask how McPherson obtained the check. After comparing it with other McPherson checks and the one from R&R (made out to Capers, who cashed it Nov. 18, 2002), they also suspected Gulley did not write the check.
But if she allowed McPherson to take the check and fill it out, he did not defraud her nor commit a crime, prosecutors said. Without Gulley's complaint, prosecutors could go no further.
- Times staff writer Lucy Morgan and Times researcher Kitty Bennett contributed to this report.
