Louisa woman gets 15 months for use of stolen credit cards

A Louisa County woman will serve jail time after she used credit cards that others stole from area motel rooms.
Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire sentenced Betty Lou Bridget on Tuesday to an active sentence of 15 months in jail for incidents in the city and Albemarle County. Bridget also will have to pay $2,469.38 in restitution.
Bridget, 49, previously pleaded guilty to credit card-related charges in both the city and county. Authorities have said she used credit cards that weren’t hers to buy items from area stores.

Her husband, Elvin Charles Bridget Jr., and Alfred Sylvester Fortune Jr. knocked on the doors of motel rooms around Christmas and New Year’s and claimed that they were there to repair the heating system. Authorities said the men instead left with the occupants’ purses or wallets.
Betty Bridget drove the men to stores afterward, authorities have said, but she was not involved in the robberies.
“She was sort of an after-the-fact player,” defense attorney Jessica Smith said in court.

Claude Worrell, the city’s deputy commonwealth’s attorney, said in court that incarceration would be appropriate for Bridget.
“She was certainly fully aware and was a full participant in the activities,” Worrell said in court.
Authorities said Tuesday that Betty Bridget’s prior criminal history consisted of two traffic tickets. Smith said in court that her client’s motivation for using the credit cards was that she didn’t have enough money.
Before being sentenced, Bridget addressed the court.
“I’d like to say I’m sorry and what I’ve done is wrong and what I did will haunt me for the rest of my life,” she said.

Much of Bridget’s sentence was suspended, and the nearly eight months that she has been in jail so far will count toward her sentence. The judge sentenced her to three years each on the county’s credit card forgery charges and suspended all but seven months. In the city, the judge sentenced her to 10 years each on two credit card larceny charges and five years each on the credit card forgery charges and suspended all but eight months. Bridget also will serve two years of supervised probation.
According to the county’s court records, Fortune has been convicted of two credit card forgery counts in the county and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 20. Elvin Bridget Jr. was sentenced Nov. 3 to 10 years each on two credit card forgery charges, but all of that was suspended except for four years and two months, according to court records.