A Gun-Store Background Check Blew It Open: Lowell Woman Charged With 42 Felonies Over Fake Expungements

Heather Ann Textor, 41, of Lowell, in a photo released by Indiana State Police after her arrest on 42 felony and three misdemeanor counts. Photo: Indiana State Police, via WIBC.

Merrillville -- The paperwork said the old record was gone. It carried a judge's signature saying so. Then a gun shop ran a background check, the old conviction came right back up, and, according to Indiana State Police, an alleged five-year scheme run out of a Merrillville law office's front desk finally started to come apart.

Heather Ann Textor, 41, of Lowell, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon by Lowell police and booked into the Lake County Jail, state police said in a release Friday. She faces 42 felony counts and three misdemeanors, among them fraud, forgery, theft and counterfeiting. ISP says more charges remain under review while investigators work through seized digital evidence and financial records.

Every count is an accusation, not a verdict. Textor has not been convicted of anything and is presumed innocent unless the state proves its case in court.

The desk where clients started

Textor began working at Weiss, Schmidgall and Hires, P.C., in 2017 and was usually the first person a prospective client met, police told CBS Chicago. Investigators allege she took cash down payments from people who wanted their criminal records expunged, wrote receipts from a book kept apart from the firm's computer system, and later handed back orders bearing forged judges' signatures, made-up courtrooms and the names of attorneys who had never met the client.

State police also say she misrepresented her role at the firm, forged specialized driving-privilege documents, and diverted electronic payments into personal accounts. CBS Chicago reported that police said she ran CashApp and PayPal accounts in the firm's name to move money to her own bank account, and texted worried clients from her personal phone with what police called "a multitude of different lies."

The firm is not accused of wrongdoing and has cooperated, police said. "It's a very fine law firm, very ethical law firm, and they certainly had no knowledge until it was brought to their attention," Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter told CBS Chicago. According to the probable cause affidavit, as reported by FOX 32, the firm fired Textor in November 2023 after attorneys reviewed receipt books and found client payments that were never deposited. The firm declined to comment to reporters.

Small checks, real handcuffs

Most payments were modest, roughly $800 to $1,500, police said. In one example from the affidavit, FOX 32 reported, a client paid $1,626 for an expungement; $626 reached the firm's account, and the other $1,000 never showed up in its books.

The damage went past money. ISP says some people were arrested or jailed after trusting documents that told them their records were clear or their driving privileges restored. "They went to jail because of this woman and her actions," ISP Sgt. Glen Fifield told WIBC, describing one person who spent a week in the Lake County Jail waiting to be moved to another county on a warrant. Police told CBS Chicago that at least two people believed their driving cases were wiped away, only to be pulled over and learn they had warrants for missing court dates in those very cases.

Lamar Cheairs, who went on camera with ABC7 Chicago and is listed as a victim in the charging documents, said he paid Textor $980 in 2023 to clear a record from mistakes he made when he was younger, and learned about a year later, when he tried to legally buy a firearm, that nothing had been done. "It's really diabolical," he said. He has since cleared his record the right way.

Questions Lake County should answer

Here is the part that should bother every Hoosier who trusts a court seal. The man whose case first raised the alarm in November 2023 had already shown his fake expungement to an employer a couple of years earlier, police told CBS Chicago, and the employer hired him on the strength of it. ISP says several forged court documents were used to try to get government-issued licenses or benefits, and that several courts had to take corrective action.

So the forged signature of a sitting judge apparently traveled a long way before anyone checked it against the actual docket. The one system that refused to be fooled was a firearm background check at a gun counter, the same check gun owners are routinely told is the backbone of public safety. Fair enough. Then why wasn't anything comparable standing between a counterfeit court order and an employer, a licensing office or a clerk?

There is also the calendar. The firm fired Textor in November 2023, the affidavit says. The handcuffs came in October 2026. ISP calls it a three-year investigation into dozens of victims, financial institutions and court files, and complicated fraud cases do take time; the agency credited Sgt. Joe White of its Organized Crime and Corruption Unit with leading the work. But people who believed they had paid to put their past behind them deserve to know how many forged orders were accepted along the way, who was told, and when.

What comes next

Carter told CBS Chicago that Textor made her first court appearance Thursday, with bail set at $150,000 and a 10% cash requirement of $15,000. She was still in the Lake County Jail as of Friday morning. Her next hearing, on bail, is set for Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The felony counts, as listed by Indiana State Police and NBC Chicago:

• Fraud against a financial institution, Level 5 felony: 5 counts

• Forgery, Level 6 felony: 13 counts

• Counterfeiting, Level 6 felony: 2 counts

• Fraud ($750 to $50,000), Level 6 felony: 5 counts

• Fraud with enhancing circumstances, Level 6 felony: 7 counts

• Theft ($750 to $50,000), Level 6 felony: 7 counts

• Fraud, Level 6 felony: 3 counts

State police believe there are people who still think their records were cleared and don't yet know otherwise. Anyone who paid Textor for legal work is asked to call Sgt. Joe White at 219-696-6242. If you handed over cash for an expungement at that front desk, it is worth five minutes on the phone, and a quick look at your own record on MyCase, before a background check or a traffic stop gives you the answer instead.

Sources: Indiana State Police release (as published by WLFI); CBS Chicago; NBC Chicago; ABC7 Chicago; FOX 32 Chicago; WIBC.

Photo credit: Indiana State Police booking photo of Heather Ann Textor, as published by WIBC.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.