People v. Kanan
Colorado Supreme Court
526 P.2d 1339 (1974)
Over a one-week period, John Kanan (defendant) wrote three checks totaling $75 to a liquor store, all of which bounced because his underlying bank account had been closed the previous month; bank statements mailed to his home address had consistently shown an overdrawn balance for months, though the December and January statements were returned undelivered, and a separate account-closure notice was also mailed to the same address. Kanan was convicted of the felony offense of passing short checks after the trial court instructed the jury that a person who writes and delivers a check thereby represents that he knows his account's status and has sufficient funds; he appealed, challenging that instruction.
Whether a jury instruction stating that writing and delivering a check inherently represents the drawer's knowledge of his account's status improperly relieves the prosecution of its burden to prove the defendant's actual knowledge of insufficient funds beyond a reasonable doubt.