Fidgeting and Flailing Forgery Suspect Arrested: Reports

CONCORD, NH — A complaint about a man trespassing on a stranger’s lawn led to drug, forgery, as well as other charges, against a homeless man, according to an arrest report and court affidavit. Michael Fortier, 30, a homeless man now located in Concord, was arrested on May 31, 2016, and charged with felony possession of controlled drug-methamphetamine, criminal trespass, felony forgery, and receiving stolen property.

Editor’s note: This post was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and Concord District Court. It does not indicate a conviction. This link explains the name removal request process for NH Patch police reports.

Officers were sent to Lawrence Street for a report of a trespassing issue with a man reportedly “staggering and dancing around on the front lawn” of a stranger’s property.

The complainant stated that he asked the man to leave twice but he wouldn’t. The man said he didn’t know the dancing man was, according to the report. The officer noted that the man was “staggering, twitching, and dancing around with his eyes closed,” and was sweating, thrashing around, and talking in gibberish.

“The man was obviously highly intoxicated drugs and/or alcohol and did not notice that I was there,” the officer alleged.

The man was asked to get down on the ground and complied, and while he was searched for weapons, police allegedly found a can of Axe body spray, scissors, tape, a glass tube with residue, and a small plastic bag of a white substance that was suspected to be methamphetamine in one of his pockets. In another pocket, the officer found a multi-tool kit, a lint roller, a notebook, a cellphone, and another glass pipe with residue. The officer alleged that the man gave the name of “Jonathan Fortier,” and he didn’t know where he lived, according to the affidavit.

That name didn’t come back to an existing person but the officers were able to match his picture to a booking photo for Michael Fortier, who had two active warrants from Concord Police for forgery and New Hampshire State Police, so he was arrested.

The officers spoke to the witness who stated the Fortier said he was flailing around to “stretch my arm out” and was looking for a man named “Steve” at the home. The complainant said there was no one there by that name and asked him to leave but he allegedly refused, so he called police.

Forgery affidavit

On Feb. 12, 2016, officers spoke with a Goffstown woman about a past tense forgery incident at police headquarters. The case involved checks that were stolen from Hooksett, with “Steven Ridgeway” as the name used on the check that was cashed in Concord.

The woman stated that the day before, she was at the Walmart in Hooksett and entered the store. About an hour later, she came out and discovered that her purse was missing from her veicle. A few hours later, she went to her bank in Goffstown and found out that $1,056.53 was withdrawn from her account on a check she didn’t write. The check was allegedly made out the Ridgeway and cashed at TD Bank on Sheep Davis Road, according to the affidavit.

Ridgeway, who was well known to the police for prior alleged car break-ins and methamphetamine use, was arrested about two weeks before on burglary, drug, and a weapons charge, and released on $20,000 cash bail. The signature on the bail form “appeared to be the same” as the signature on the forged check, according to police.

The officer went to the bank and spoke with a branch manager that also discovered a second check for $952.14, also allegedly made out to Ridgeway, according to the report.

A bank employee later emailed video surveillance and the officer spoke to Ridgeway who was arrested on Feb. 19, on other charges.

“Ridgeway immediately denied stealing any checks,” the officer alleged, and added that “anybody can practice a signature and make it look like someone else’s.”

On Feb. 24, a detective began working the case and received security footage from the Walmart and the Bass Pro Shop in Hooksett and reportedly saw a Chrysler Pacifica that was parked near the victim’s vehicle. The driver of the vehicle reportedly matched the same clothing that was worn by the person cashing the check, according to the detective.

On March 15, Fortier was arrested on a meth possession charge and warrants outside of Ridgeway’s home on South Street, and his new booking photo appeared to match the man who was in the footage in Hooksett and at the bank, according to the report. Other officers and another detective also eyed the photos and positively identified the man to be Fortier, according to the report.

On March 26, the reporting officer learned the Fortier was a suspect in a theft case at the Walmart in Manchester and the investigation led to a motel near the airport where Ridgeway, Kendra Robitelle, and another woman, where allegedly found to be in possession of “numerous stolen items to include stolen checks from different towns and burglary tools,” according to the affidavit.

A few days later, after Robitelle was arrested for theft at Target, she allegedly confirmed that she, Fortier, Ridgeway, and the other woman were involved in “numerous crimes together,” according to the detective.

A warrant was issued for Fortier’s arrest for forgery and receiving stolen property on April 5.