MONROE — When a man who identified himself as Chad Blaser started writing checks in his name for expensive chainsaws at stores across southwestern Wisconsin in September, police got suspicious.

Blaser has been in the Stephenson County Jail in Illinois since February and is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to killing his ex-girlfriend, 21-year-old Gabby Petsche of Monroe.

If he didn’t write the checks, who did?

According to a criminal complaint filed in Green County Circuit Court, an investigation into the suspicious checks led police to 32-year-old Brandon J. Disrud of Monticello.

Disrud is now charged with five felony counts of forgery in Green County. He’s also charged with felony forgery in Grant County. A warrant is issued for his arrest. 

Disrud posed as Blaser to open a checking account at a bank in Orfordville in September, then used the starter checks he was given to “purchase expensive chainsaws” in the area and pawn the tools in Dubuque, Madison and Rockford, according to police reports filed with the criminal complaint.

He told the bank he had recently been hired at Stoughton Trailers and needed an account for direct deposit. No money was ever deposited into the account.

A Stoughton Trailers employee told police Disrud has never worked at the company but that Blaser had worked there until he was fired in late January.

In Green County, Disrud reportedly passed the fraudulent checks at Olin’s Juda Oasis, Trackside Mobile and Gasser True Value Hardware in Brodhead and East Side Farm Equipment in rural Monroe.

When asked about the checks by a sergeant at the Stephenson County Jail, Blaser “claimed to have given permission to individuals from the Monroe area to use his ID.”

Disrud also claimed he had Blaser’s permission. It’s not clear from the criminal complaint if or how Disrud and Blaser know each other. Disrud has a lengthy criminal record going back 15 years in the area, including convictions of theft, burglary, dealing cocaine and writing worthless checks.