{"id":31113,"date":"2023-10-17T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stephanie-morris-nissan-employee-denies-forgery-accusations\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:34:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:34:22","slug":"stephanie-morris-nissan-employee-denies-forgery-accusations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/stephanie-morris-nissan-employee-denies-forgery-accusations\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephanie Morris Nissan employee denies forgery accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Stephanie
Stephanie Morris Nissan announced to its employees that it was closing permanently on Monday Oct. 2. (Tyler Brown\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Stephanie Morris Nissan employee has denied accusations of forgery committed by the dealership.<\/p>\n

The accusations<\/a> were brought forth by customer Michelle Gamblin, who says that she was never given a lease agreement to sign when trading in her 2019 Dodge Ram for a 2023 Nissan Pathfinder.<\/p>\n

She alleges that she was given the vehicle without signing for the trade-in because the e-signature pads were not working when she visited the dealership on April 15, and that she was notified days later that her contract was complete despite not signing for the vehicle.<\/p>\n

However, Gamblin said after contacting the Nissan Corporate offices, Nissan\u2019s copy of the lease agreement had signatures from Gamblin that appeared pixelated, leading her to believe that the agreement was tampered with.<\/p>\n

Gamblin said that Stephanie Morris Nissan sales employee Warren Gutierrez is among the employees was involved in the forgery.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez says he was not involved in any fraudulent act committed by the dealership and was not in the room on April 15 when the transaction took place.<\/p>\n

He said the dealership was having financial problems and that issues with trade-ins were a common occurrence. He described his time with the dealership under the Stephanie Morris name as \u201cputting out fires left and right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gutierrez was surprised that he was implicated in the accusations from Gamblin, considering his interactions with her had always been friendly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like they were pretty happy with the deal and we had a similar political stance, so we had a good conversation,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n

Durango Police Department spokesman Deck Shaline told The Durango Herald<\/em> that they received a complaint from Gamblin. After an investigation, police confirmed that they did not have probable cause to move forward with criminal charges against the dealership.<\/p>\n

However, Shaline said that the District Attorney\u2019s office is reviewing the police department\u2019s investigation of the dealership because of complaints made by customers and could not release more information about DPD\u2019s investigation on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe at this point, that there are civil remedies to this and that criminal elements haven\u2019t been established,\u201d Shaline said.<\/p>\n

Shaline added that DPD believes they\u2019ve done a thorough investigation and that detectives came to a proper conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t hurt to have the DA\u2019s office have a look at it too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez said he doesn\u2019t know why the signatures on the document filed with the Nissan corporate offices were pixelated and was not aware of a corporate investigation into fraudulent activity until reading the article published in The Durango Herald<\/em> on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never seen a signature that looked like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His understanding of why Gamblin wanted to return the car was that it did not have the same towing capacity as her 2019 Dodge Ram to pull a travel trailer. He said there were emails indicating this between Gamblin and himself.<\/p>\n

However, because of the closure of Stephanie Morris Nissan, he said his work email had been wiped and did not have the emails from his interaction with Gamblin. Also, Gutierrez confirmed that there was an issue with Gamblin being charged after trading in her 2019 Dodge Ram.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been an issue with this new ownership. Consistently, so many people have called in about their trades not being paid off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also said there were constant issues with cash flow under the Stephanie Morris ownership.<\/p>\n

Durango police were not able to disclose details regarding the emails on Monday.<\/p>\n

Gutierrez said that the reason she likely wanted to return the vehicle was buyer\u2019s remorse.<\/p>\n

However, Gutierrez said when investigators with Durango police came to the dealership, the general manager showed them the lease agreement documents that were signed with a pen.<\/p>\n

DPD also did not disclose these details Monday because the District Attorney\u2019s office is reviewing the investigation.<\/p>\n

In addition, Gutierrez said the reason for the $1,600 discrepancy between the two lease agreements was the result of a tax differential in New Mexico compared to Colorado. He said there was an additional 4% tax for leasing the vehicle that the finance department did not account for.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy GM had to basically take a $1,400 loss. We had to take $1,600 out of the deal to essentially keep payments the same,\u201d Gutierrez said.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 12, Nissan started removing vehicles from the Stephanie Morris lot.<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

(An earlier version of this story published on Oct. 17 erred in reporting that the District Attorney\u2019s office was investigating Stephanie Morris Nissan. The District Attorney\u2019s office is reviewing the Durango Police Department\u2019s investigation into fraudulent acts conducted by Stephanie Morris Nissan because of customer complaints<\/em>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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