Woman who made legal threats against NIT in fraud case pleaded guilty

MASON CITY – A Mason City woman who was arrested and charged with credit card fraud in January pleaded guilty to the crime in April.

In the investigation into the case, Mason City police had released a surveillance photo on January 6th, 2013 of a woman who was wanted for questioning, what they called a “possible subject who may have information about a fraud case.”  The victims were Mason City residents who live in Asbury.

Immediately after NIT posted the photo of the wanted subject on January 6th, an NIT reader recognized the subject as Julie Ann Melton of Mason City and wrote her name in a comment under the story, which police were monitoring.

Within hours of that comment being posted to NIT, Julie Ann Melton contacted NIT and said “My name is Julie Melton and I want my name removed from the comments on the Help Mason City Police locate a person of interest or I will be contacting my lawyer. Thank you.”

Days later, Julie Anne Melton, 38, was arrested and booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail and charged with unauthorized use of a credit card.

After initially pleading not guilty, Melton plead guilty to the crime of unauthorized use of a credit card, an aggravated misdemeanor, on April 12th, 2013.

Melton received a deferred judgement.  A $625.00 fine was suspended and she received a year’s probation and was ordered to complete 40 hours of community service.  Melton was also charged $225.00 in court costs.  Months later, she still owes the courts $75.00 in the case.