{"id":334917,"date":"2026-07-09T21:31:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334917\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T21:31:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T21:31:11","slug":"tampa-fraud-case-man-accused-of-forging-judges-signature-for-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/334917\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa fraud case: Man accused of forging judge’s signature for job"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Church \"Church Church fraud suspect back in court<\/a> <\/p>\n

A man already accused of defrauding a South Tampa church out of hundreds of thousands of dollars is back behind bars after investigators say he forged a judge\u2019s signature and created fake documents to try to secure a new job. FOX 13’s Aaron Mesmer reports.<\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. – A man already accused of defrauding a South Tampa church out of hundreds of thousands of dollars is back behind bars after investigators say he forged a judge\u2019s signature and created fake documents to try to secure a new job.<\/p>\n

Stephen Halford appeared in Hillsborough County Court Thursday following his latest arrest. Prosecutors say the new allegations stem from actions he took while applying for a position with a construction company in Pasco County.<\/p>\n

Tampa fraud investigation <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

According to an arrest report, Halford was seeking employment with a Pasco County construction company when a background check revealed information about his previous arrest. He was charged last year in connection with an alleged scheme involving Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in South Tampa.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Stephen Halford in court.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Investigators accused him of collecting nearly $675,000 for construction work that was never completed by using forged or fraudulent invoices. Authorities said Halford was later released on bond while that case remained pending.<\/p>\n

Investigators now allege Halford falsely told the prospective employer that the church fraud case had been dismissed. They say he provided a fraudulent document that included a forged judge\u2019s signature in an attempt to support his claim.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also allege Halford created fake text messages that appeared to come from his attorney to convince the company that the pending criminal charges were no longer an issue.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough legal actions <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez said the actions alleged in the new case went beyond dishonesty and amounted to criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

“He has committed the wrong crime, and he’s certainly committed it in the wrong jurisdiction. And so he’s going to have to pay for those crimes,” Lopez said.<\/p>\n

\"\" Court bond revocation <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

During Wednesday\u2019s hearing, a judge revoked Halford\u2019s bond on the original charges connected to the alleged church fraud case.<\/p>\n

Halford remains in custody as he faces both the original fraud allegations and the new charges related to the alleged forged court documents and fabricated communications.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The Source: Information for this story comes from court proceedings, arrest records, and statements from Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez.<\/p>\n

Tampa<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Church fraud suspect back in court A man already accused of defrauding a South Tampa church out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-334917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}