Green Country Woman In Financial Ruin Wants More Punishment For Suspect

Violent crimes get all the attention, but a Green Country woman says a white collar crime ruined her life.

She can't understand why the man charged is not headed to prison, especially since he's a repeat offender.

Stevia Reed said after she divorced her husband he took out 25 credit cards in her name, opened two online checking accounts, forged an email to the post office in order to divert her mail, and even stole and cashed her worker's comp check.

She said it's left her in financial ruins, but because it's a white collar crime, no one seems to take it seriously.

"They say it's victimless, it's not. What he did was take away my ability to live," Stevia said.

That's because your credit score governs everything - the ability to borrow money, what you pay for insurance, even trying to get a job.

Prosecutors charged Michael Reed with seven counts in Stevia's case. He's also facing a forged check charge from last year, and he has numerous previous cases and has been in and out of prison for similar crimes.

Stevia thought Reed was going to be sent to prison for two years, but she’s frustrated the judge instead allowed Reed to apply for drug court. She said he's already been declined for drug court earlier this year.

"You're just telling me he can do drug court and get no punishment? You think that's a punishment? That's not a punishment. He's getting to skate," Stevia said.

She said, in the meantime, her credit is in shambles, and trying to fix all the damage takes up a lot of time.

Stevia said, “You spend so many hours on the phone to be told you need to talk to somebody else or be on hold until they say, ‘we're closed, goodbye.’"

If Reed doesn't get into drug court he'll go back before the judge and the case will move forward.

The district attorney can't comment on open cases, and Reed's attorney said she can't comment on the case either.