Although a Centreville woman is now charged with two credit-card crimes, instead of three, those two offenses are going to the grand jury. The woman is Keomi D. Payton of 5828 Belcher Farm Drive.
In a March 20 affidavit for a warrant to search Payton’s two-story townhouse, a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service explained the case against her. Due to the nature of his work, Centre View is not revealing his identity.
He wrote that an investigation conducted by the Secret Service and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office led to Payton as the person who allegedly stole and then used someone else’s credit card. He stated that the card was used at “several different retail locations throughout Northern Virginia” between Jan. 4-13.
According to the agent, the victim allegedly identified Payton from a store, surveillance video obtained from Target. “The video showed an individual purchasing items with the stolen credit card,” he wrote.
Kraig Troxell, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, said that county "initiated the case because the victim lives in Loudoun, but the actual crimes [reportedly] took place in Fairfax County." He said Payton and the victim worked at the same company in Fairfax.
On March 21, authorities charged Payton with one count each of credit-cart theft, credit-card forgery and credit-card fraud. Last Tuesday, June 5, in Fairfax County General District Court, the credit-card forgery offense was dropped. But Judge Donald McDonough sent the other two charges to the grand jury for possible indictment.
<tgl> — Bonnie Hobbs