Connecticut forgery in the second degree is a Class D felony under C.G.S. § 53a-139, carrying up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.1Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-139 – Forgery in the Second Degree: Class D Felony The charge applies when someone falsely makes, completes, alters, issues, or possesses a document that carries legal weight: deeds, wills, contracts, public records, government-issued documents, or prescriptions. The state must also prove you acted with intent to defraud, deceive, or injure another person.
What Puts a Forgery in the Second Degree
Connecticut grades forgery by the type of document involved, not by the dollar amount or the method used. Second degree sits in the middle. Above it, first-degree forgery under C.G.S. § 53a-138 covers government currency, stamps, securities, stock certificates, and corporate bonds, and is a Class C felony with one to ten years in prison.2Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-138 – Forgery in the First Degree: Class C Felony Below it, third-degree forgery under C.G.S. § 53a-140 is the catch-all for everything that doesn’t fit either higher tier, and is only a Class B misdemeanor.3Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-140 – Forgery in the Third Degree: Class B Misdemeanor
Second degree applies when the forged document falls into one of four categories:
- Legal instruments. Deeds, wills, codicils, contracts, assignments, promissory notes, and any other document that creates, transfers, or terminates a legal right or obligation. The category is broad by design; a forged power of attorney, a fabricated lease, or a doctored insurance claim all qualify.1Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-139 – Forgery in the Second Degree: Class D Felony
- Public records. Any document filed with, or required to be filed with, a government office or public servant.
- Official government documents. Written instruments officially issued or created by a public office or governmental body.
- Prescriptions. A prescription issued by a licensed physician or other authorized prescriber for any drug or device that requires a prescription by law.
Prescription forgery often brings company. Creating a fake script or altering a real one to obtain controlled substances can produce a forgery charge stacked on top of separate drug possession or fraud charges.
What the State Has to Prove
Two elements, both required: a prohibited act involving a qualifying document, and intent to defraud, deceive, or injure another person.
The Prohibited Acts
Under C.G.S. § 53a-137, the conduct covered by forgery falls into four buckets.4Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut Code Chapter 952 – Penal Code: Offenses You don’t need to create a document from scratch to be charged.
- Falsely making. Creating a document that appears to come from someone who never authorized it. The supposed author can be a real person who didn’t sign off or a completely fictional one.
- Falsely completing. Taking an incomplete document and filling in missing information without authorization, so the finished product looks the way the real author would have intended. Filling in the amount on a signed blank check is the classic example.
- Falsely altering. Changing a genuine document through erasure, deletion, insertion, or any other method so the altered version still looks authentic. Changing the dollar figure on a promissory note or the beneficiary on a will fits here.
- Issuing or possessing a known forgery. You don’t have to be the forger. Knowingly passing a fake deed to a title company, or walking into a pharmacy with a prescription you know is fake, is the same offense.1Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-139 – Forgery in the Second Degree: Class D Felony
Intent to Defraud
The fraud doesn’t have to succeed. If a bank teller catches a forged check on sight and no money changes hands, the crime is still complete. Connecticut courts have held that whether the victim was actually deceived is irrelevant.1Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-139 – Forgery in the Second Degree: Class D Felony
Prosecutors usually prove intent through circumstantial evidence: the context, whether you stood to gain, how sophisticated the alteration was, and whether you tried to cover your tracks.
Penalties for a Conviction
Prison and Fines
Class D felony. The maximum prison sentence is five years, and there is no mandatory minimum, so a judge can impose anything from no incarceration up to the five-year cap.5Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-35a – Imprisonment for Felony Committed on or After July 1, 1981 The fine runs up to $5,000.6Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-41 – Fines for Felonies A first-time offender who forged a single document causing minimal loss is unlikely to see the maximum. Prior convictions, a pattern of forgery, or substantial victim losses push toward the harsher end.
Probation
Courts often pair a forgery sentence with probation. For a Class D felony, probation runs up to three years as a standard matter, with discretion to extend to five years on a case-by-case basis.7Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-29 – Probation and Conditional Discharge Conditions commonly include check-ins with a probation officer, drug testing, or community service. Violations can send you back for additional jail time.
Restitution
If the forgery caused financial harm and the victim requests restitution, the court must consider ordering repayment under C.G.S. § 53a-28. The amount is tied to actual, measurable losses: property damage, out-of-pocket expenses, lost wages. It does not cover pain and suffering.8Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-28 – Authorized Sentences A restitution order is enforceable as a civil judgment, so the victim can keep collecting after the criminal sentence ends.
What a Felony Record Does to the Rest of Your Life
The sentence is only part of what a conviction costs. Connecticut law prohibits convicted felons from possessing firearms, ammunition, or electronic defense weapons. Violating that prohibition is itself a Class C felony carrying up to ten years, with a mandatory minimum of over two years that the court cannot suspend.9Justia. Connecticut Code 53a-217 – Criminal Possession of a Firearm, Ammunition, or Electronic Defense Weapon Any pistols or revolvers you own at the time of conviction must be transferred to an eligible person or to the Commissioner of Public Safety.
A felony conviction also disqualifies you from jury service for seven years.10Connecticut General Assembly. Connecticut Code Chapter 884 – Jurors Background checks will flag the conviction for employers. Licensing boards in finance, healthcare, real estate, and law routinely review felony records and may deny or revoke a license. A forgery conviction hits especially hard in trust-dependent industries because it speaks directly to your credibility with documents and money.
Defenses That Actually Work
The strongest defenses attack one of the two elements the state has to prove.
- No intent to defraud. If you genuinely believed you had authority to sign or modify the document, the intent element collapses. Someone who signs a business partner’s name on a routine filing, honestly believing standing permission covered it, lacks fraudulent intent. Most forgery defenses live here, and intent is often the hardest element for prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Actual authorization. If the document’s owner really did give you permission, no forgery occurred. The question is whether the authority was real and whether it covered what you did. Permission to endorse checks is not permission to change the amount.
- Lack of knowledge. For charges based on issuing or possessing a forged document, the state must prove you knew it was forged. Depositing a bad check you had no reason to suspect isn’t knowing possession.
- Document doesn’t qualify. Second-degree forgery requires the document to fit one of the four statutory categories. If what was forged is an informal writing that doesn’t affect legal rights, isn’t a public record, wasn’t issued by a government body, and isn’t a prescription, the proper charge is third-degree forgery at most.
Which defense fits depends entirely on how and why the document was created or altered. The facts drive the strategy more than any general principle.
When Federal Charges Can Stack
Forgery that targets federal documents or defrauds the U.S. government can trigger separate federal charges on top of any Connecticut prosecution. Under 18 U.S.C. § 494, forging or altering a bond, contract, public record, or similar document to defraud the United States carries up to ten years in federal prison.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 494 – Contractors’ Bonds, Bids, and Public Records Federal and state prosecutors can pursue the same conduct in parallel, so a forged document submitted to a federal agency can produce both a state Class D felony and a federal felony with twice the maximum.