---

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992                   TAG: 9202050279
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                LENGTH: Short

---

WOMAN GUILTY OF 12 COUNTS IN FORGERY CASE

A Wytheville woman received a 10-year suspended sentence Monday for 12 forgery convictions involving checks from another woman's checkbook.

Loretta Marianne Blankenship of Route 1, Wytheville, was placed on probation for 10 years, was referred to the Community Diversion Incentive Program and ordered to pay back $381 to the elderly victim whose checkbook was lost or stolen last February while she was in grocery shopping.

Blankenship was arrested in June following a joint investigation by the Wytheville Police and Wythe County Sheriff's departments. The checks were written at various stores, and handwriting analysis was used to identify the defendant as the person who wrote them.

- Southwest bureau

---