Jury convicts Pierce County man of identity theft, forgery

A Pierce County man arrested in March after sheriff’s deputies discovered stolen mail in his backpack was convicted Tuesday of 10 counts of identity theft and one count of forgery.

A jury returned guilty verdicts against Earl Alvin Polley, 35, after a one-week trial.

The case began after one of Polley’s relatives discovered the backpack and called police. The backpack contained 38 personal records taken from multiple individuals, including mail, checks, identification and Social Security cards.

The recovered items included two checks written to Polley from an account that didn’t belong to him, and another check written to Polley from the account of a dead man.

The jury returned its verdict in less than two hours, court records show.

Polley’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30 in Superior Court.

Editor’s note: The original headline on this story incorrectly reported the charge for which Earl Polley was convicted. It has been corrected.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:15 PM.