Serial forger accused of four cases in Butler
It was Scott Elliot Payne Jr.'s birthday Monday. He wore red and received a free round trip from Pittsburgh to Butler and back.
But it was anything but a celebration.
The red he donned was an Allegheny County Jail jumpsuit. And the trip was made because he had preliminary hearings to attend in connection with four separate criminal cases in Butler County.
The 31-year-old Allegheny County man — an alleged serial counterfeit check forger — waived those hearings that were consolidated at the district judge office in Butler.
Payne can expect many more court dates in the weeks and months to come. He's accused of similar check forging charges in six other counties.
He's being held in Allegheny County Jail on numerous detainers filed by those other counties, authorities said, as well as for charges stemming from his Nov. 14 arrest by McKeesport police.
Payne's alleged forgery spree occurred in 2017. In the Butler County cases he is accused of crimes in Butler, Saxonburg and Jackson and Butler townships.
Butler police said Payne on Aug. 23 passed what looked to be an authentic Eat'n Park payroll check at the former Friedman's supermarket on West Brady Street. He used his state identification card to cash the check for $426.02.
On Aug. 28, Saxonburg police allege he presented another phony Eat'n Park payroll check at the former Friedman's on West Water Street. He cashed the fake check for $426.02.
On Sept. 11 and 12, according to Jackson Township police, Payne cashed two more bogus payroll checks at Bi-Lo Foods at Northgate Plaza. The two checks totaled $1,729.20, court documents said.
Butler Township police charged him with cashing a phony Burger King payroll check for $384.19 on Oct. 21 at the Friedman's supermarket at the Greater Butler Mart.
In the four Butler County cases, Payne faces a combined five felony counts of forgery, five misdemeanor counts of theft by deception, and one misdemeanor count each of receiving stolen property and bad checks.
Payne already has nine felony cases — eight for forgery and one for access device fraud — pending trial in three other counties. The alleged crimes occurred between Aug. 14 and Nov. 3, 2017.
Those pending cases, court records showed, happened in Ellwood City and New Castle in Lawrence County; Canonsburg, Canton Township and Washington in Washington County; and New Kensington, Greensburg, Latrobe and Rostraver Township in Westmoreland County
But that's not the end of his legal trouble.
Payne is facing preliminary hearings April 18 in two unrelated felony forgery cases last year in South Connellsville, Fayette County.
Additionally, arrest warrants remain out for him in a pair of unrelated forgery cases last year in Beaver, Beaver County, and New Bethlehem, Clarion County, and a misdemeanor forgery case last year in Beaver Township, Clarion County.
Court records show that Payne already has nine forgery convictions in Pennsylvania.
