WASECA COUNTY, MN   An Austin woman who allegedly failed to pony up after buying horses and equine equipment faces two felony charges for theft by swindle and forgery.

Rhonda Sue Leon, 32, reportedly gave a check for $500 to the seller as partial payment in June 2014, but when the seller went to cash the check it came back as being written on a closed account. She was charged Dec. 11.

The checks were reportedly written from an account of Leon's boyfriend, who told investigators that Leon had taken 10 to 15 check and promised to deposit $3,000 into the account.

He later learned that Leon had jimmied open a cabinet where he stored the checks, and that the account was closed without his knowledge.

Investigators believed someone, likely a female, forged the check to the horse seller, and noted the handwriting did not match the boyfriend's on whose account the checks were written. In all, the man gave investigators paperwork showing 11 checks were forged, totaling $1,823.

In July 2014, a Waseca County woman reported that she paid Leon, using the name Rhonda Hulst, to train her horse, but didn't do so. Later that month, a Waseca County man said a woman he knew as Rhonda Hulst paid him for lawn mowing services with a check on a closed account. In August, a fourth person reported that Leon took $600 worth of horse tack and about $50 of hay in exchange for boarding his horse, but never came to pick up the horse. The horse owner said though she learned Leon was in jail, her property was not returned.

Leon was convicted in 2014 in Blue Earth County of one count of misdemeanor theft by swindle and sentenced to 90 days in jail.

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