DOVER-FOXCROFT – One of two local men accused of cleaning out a soldier’s life savings while he was on leave in the states pleaded guilty to forgery on July 28 in Piscataquis County Superior Court.

Sentencing for Duane Hyde, 37, of Dover-Foxcroft, who entered the plea, was continued.

Hyde and Robert Brammer, 29, of Guilford, whose case is pending, each were charged with forgery for allegedly stealing more than $14,000 from the checking account of Shawn Burke, 22.

Burke discovered the theft after he had returned to the states from a 15-month deployment with the Army in the Mideast. He told police he had written a check for online college courses and when the check failed to clear in mid-April he called the Greenville branch of Maine Highlands Credit Union. He then learned his account had been nearly drained since his arrival back in the U.S.

The checks cashed reportedly were taken from a box of checks the bank had mailed, at Burke’s request, to his brother’s home in Sangerville. The checks were written in amounts from $630 to $6,500, and the first were cashed in February, several days after Burke had returned to the United States, according to Greenville Police Chief Scott MacMaster.

MacMaster said earlier the checks were stolen by Hyde and Brammer, acquaintances of Burke’s brother’s. The pair reportedly cashed the checks at branches of the credit union in Dover-Foxcroft, Guilford, Dexter and Greenville. Identification or licenses were provided by the individuals where the checks were cashed, he said.

Because Burke failed to check his bank statement and did not notify the credit union within 20 days upon its receipt to report the missing funds, he bears some fault, bank officials said earlier. The official said the credit union would refund only $3,995 to Burke.

Burke told police that after his arrival in January from abroad, he visited with relatives and he had to report for duty in Texas in mid-February. He said he hadn’t checked his account until he learned his check for the courses failed to clear.

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