Pair gets jail for forging Dutch Bros punch cards

Published 3:45 pm Wednesday, February 12, 2020

A Redmond man and woman were recently sentenced for stealing more than $2,500 in free drinks over six months from Dutch Bros locations in Redmond.

Marena Cordi-Suzanne Livesay, 23, appeared at her sentencing Wednesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court, where she was ordered to serve 10 days in jail, given two years probation, ordered to stay off drugs and to have no contact with any Dutch Bros location or her co-defendant, Martin Lee Horton, who received a similar sentence last month.

“I do want to say sorry to Dutch Brothers,” Livesay told Judge Wells Ashby. “I do regret it.”

The case came to the attention of Redmond Police in October after a Redmond Dutch Bros franchise owner, Josh Kinsey, ran across a curious Craigslist ad.

“Long story short, Mr. Kinsey found an online ad selling Dutch Bros stamp cards,” prosecutor Andrew Doyle told the court. “This is not something that they do, so it was suspicious to law enforcement.”

Redmond officers set up a controlled buy with Horton and Livesay.

They arrived as planned, and officers searched them and found 645 stolen customer loyalty cards as well as an official rubber stamp.

Though their plan to profit was upended, officers determined the couple regularly filled out the cards and used them to get free coffee over a six-month period.

The two were charged with aggravated identity theft, forgery, first-degree theft and computer crime.

Livesay pleaded guilty on Friday. Horton, 42, pleaded guilty last month.

At the time of her arrest, Livesay had recently moved to Deschutes County with her family from Mississippi, her attorney, Lisa Calyn Valenta, told the court.

“She found herself with limited resources and made some poor decisions about associating with Mr. Horton and about stealing from Dutch Brothers,” Valenta said. “I do think that Ms. Livesay has great prospects for the future. She’s only 23 years old, and I think she’d be able to follow through with supervised probation.”

Valenta said Livesay wants to move back to Mississippi and transfer her probation there.

It wasn’t the last time a Deschutes County Dutch Bros stand was targeted. A probable cause affidavit from a triple arrest Friday shows Bend Police officers recently broke up a similar scheme to the one Livesay and Horton were convicted of.

Michael Ryan Beach was recently charged with possession of a forged instrument for allegedly having a Dutch Bros loyalty stamp and loyalty cards, in addition to 2 grams of methamphetamine. He told police he’d gotten the cards and stamp from an ex-girlfriend who used to work there.

Dutch Bros would not comment on either case.

“We typically don’t do interviews on criminal cases,” said Dutch Bros spokeswoman Melanie Spliethof, “just for the safety of our baristas.”

Editor’s note: This article has been corrected. The original version misidentified persons charged with possession of a forged instrument. The Bulletin regrets the error. 

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