Nebraska § 28-601 - Terms, defined.

§ 28-601. Terms, defined.

As used in sections 28-601 to 28-605, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Written instrument shall mean any paper, document, or other instrument containing written or printed matter used for purposes of reciting, embodying, conveying, or recording information, and any money, credit card, token, stamp, seal, badge, trademark, or any evidence or symbol of value, right, privilege, or identification which is capable of being used to the advantage or disadvantage of some person;

(2) Complete written instrument shall mean a written instrument which purports to be genuine and fully drawn with respect to every essential feature thereof;

(3) Incomplete written instrument shall mean one which contains some matter by way of content or authentication but which requires additional matter in order to render it a complete written instrument;

(4) To falsely make a written instrument shall mean to make or draw a written instrument, whether complete or incomplete, which purports to be an authentic creation of its ostensible maker, but which is not, either because the ostensible maker is fictitious or because, if real, he did not authorize the making or the drawing thereof;

(5) To falsely complete a written instrument shall mean to transform an incomplete written instrument into a complete one by adding, inserting, or changing matter without the authority of anyone entitled to grant such authority, so that the complete written instrument falsely appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic creation of or fully authorized by its ostensible maker;

(6) To falsely alter a written instrument shall mean to change a written instrument without the authority of anyone entitled to grant such authority, whether it be in complete or incomplete form, by means of erasure, obliteration, deletion, insertion of new matter, transposition of matter, or by any other means, so that such instrument in its thus altered form falsely appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic creation of or fully authorized by its ostensible maker;

(7) Forged instrument shall mean a written instrument which has been falsely made, completed, endorsed or altered. The terms forgery and counterfeit and their variants are intended to be synonymous in legal effect as used in this article;

(8) Possess shall mean to receive, conceal, or otherwise exercise control over; and

(9) Utter shall mean to issue, authenticate, transfer, sell, transmit, present, use, pass, or deliver, or to attempt or cause such uttering.

Where the punishment of an offense created by statute is left to the discretion of the court, to be exercised within certain prescribed limits, a sentence imposed within such limits will not be disturbed on appeal unless there appears to be an abuse of discretion. State v. Harrington, 202 Neb. 356, 275 N.W.2d 294 (1979).