A Derry Township woman pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of forgery.
Authorities in Westmoreland County accused 54-year-old Lori Shawley with creating a fake death certificate to try and prove that her husband had passed. Prosecutors said that the forgeries were part of a scam to cancel a contract with Viking Steel Structures of North Carolina and refund her down payment on a garage building project. Court records showed that Shawley forged the signatures of the Westmoreland County Coroner and his chief deputy on the fake certificate as proof of death. The company had said they would not refund her down payment, but later agreed to her request after being asked to forward a copy of his death certificate.
Shawley, who was joined by her husband in court, was ordered to serve five years of probation for the guilty pleas to two counts of forgery. That sentence will include a year of house arrest. Westmoreland County Judge Michael Stewart II said that her sentence could be reduced by two years if Shawley does not violate her probation terms.
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