Check Belonging To Dead Covina Officer Lands Man In Jail
COVINA (CBSLA.com) — A city of Covina reimbursement check made out to a police officer killed in a crash late last month has landed a Huntington Beach man in jail.
Covina police said William Michael Pruitt, 36, was found slumped over a bus stop bench in the 400 block of South Citrus Avenue early Friday morning. After Pruitt allowed a search of the satchel he was carrying, police found a folded up $250 check made out to Jordan Corder, a motorcycle officer killed in an on-duty crash Sept. 30 and buried Tuesday.
Covina police Sgt. Gregg Peterson said Pruitt initially claimed that Corder was a friend of his from Hollywood.
"He said he had just talked to the guy and all this kind of stuff," Peterson told City News Service.
Pruitt, who faces a felony charge of suspicion of being in possession of a completed check with the intent to defraud, later changed his story, Peterson said, stating that he picked the check up after seeing it on Azusa Avenue on Thursday afternoon.
Police do not know how Corder lost the check. Peterson said Pruitt was arrested Friday morning not far from the intersection of Citrus Avenue and Puente Street, where Corder was killed after his motorcycle collided with a Honda SUV on Sept. 30.
Pruitt was held at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles in lieu of $20,000 bail, Peterson said, and is due in court in West Covina on Tuesday.
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