J.D. Gallop

FLORIDA TODAY

Authorities say a Brevard County paralegal is in trouble with the law herself after an investigation determined she forged divorce paperwork to get her husband to sell their house.

Amanda Diane Elsner, 33, Merritt Island, was charged with crafting a counterfeit public record certificate after serving her husband with the bogus documents last month as an official judgement of dissolution of their marriage, records show.

Elsner, who investigators said used template documents from her workplace to carry out the deception, was held at the Brevard County Jail Complex on a $2,000 bond.

Brevard County investigators said the plan fell apart after the husband went to the Moore Justice Center in Viera and asked a court clerk to help look up a case number associated with the documents sent by his wife.

Investigators said the husband, who initially believed his wife, had already provided the same documents to a title company so their house could be sold.

Investigators said Elsner also sent an email describing the document as a "final judgement." Elsner had forged Brevard County Judge Morgan Reinman’s signature to the papers along with the initials of a general magistrate, records show.

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A check of Brevard County clerk of court records do not list any divorce filings involving the couple.

The clerk also checked the judge’s signature against other filed documents and discovered they did not match.

The clerk then contacted Elsner’s place of employment at Brevard County Legal Aid and discovered the agency had fired her for using a template document taken from the office to perpetrate the divorce filing, investigators reported.

Deputies located Elsner on Feb. 8 and took her into custody.

She confessed to investigators her role but said she never filed the petition for divorce despite telling her co-workers and her husband that she did. A court date has not been set.