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LEAGUE CITY — The head of a company that recently won the city’s garbage-collection business isn’t likely to face criminal charges for the forgery and fraud cases that a civil court jury found her liable for last week.

The jury of six men and six women unanimously ruled that AmeriWaste President Janell Marin committed fraud, misapplied her fiduciary duty and forged the signatures of League City, Alvin and Friendswood city employees while she worked for IESI.

The ruling has many asking whether criminal charges were coming and why those charges weren’t pursued initially.

No charges came at first because the forged signatures were never reported to League City, Friendswood or Alvin police, spokesmen from those departments said.

Even if those departments had taken a report, they couldn’t have charged Marin without the district attorney accepting the charges — something IESI tried without success.

Tom Fowler, the lead counsel for IESI, said that when the company learned about the questionable letters at the heart of the civil case, he called the company’s Alvin law firm to see whether criminal charges were possible.

Fowler said those lawyers asked the Brazoria County district attorney about pressing charges, but the district attorney wouldn’t take charges because it was a “civil matter.”

“They’re too overworked and don’t want to get involved,” he said. “If she had committed fraud and forgery at a bank, it would have been a different story.”

Now, Fowler said the company has resolved its complaints.

“We’ve gotten our remedy,” he said.

Marin’s attorney, Robert Clements, had a different opinion.

“These charges have no real basis,” he said. “It sounds like I’m just puffing, but it’s the truth. For a criminal case, you’ve got to have proof. For civil, you just have the bare allegation. That’s why nothing has come of this.”

Marin testified in the trial she didn’t know where the letters came from.

In March 2004, IESI was auditing its Alvin office, which Marin directed for five years, IESI controller Steven Moody said.

The auditors sent letters to several accounts to confirm balances that Marin’s books stated, he said.

The three cities all sent letters saying that their account balances were overstated, in some cases by more than $100,000.

Days later, the auditing firm got a second set of letters, all confirming the account balance on Marin’s books, Moody testified.

It’s that second set of letters that IESI said Marin forged.

After IESI dismissed her, Marin formed AmeriWaste. Her company took over League City’s garbage collection contract in October.

IESI employees told all the cities about the forgery allegations four years ago, but none of the cities asked for an investigation into who forged an employee’s signature on city stationery.

League City controller Lonna Stein said that when IESI’s auditors told her about the forgery, they told her they were investigating it.

She didn’t hear from IESI again until its attorneys took her deposition.

Friendswood administrative services director Roger Roeker, whose signature was on the Friendswood letters, said IESI told him about the false signatures. When IESI officials told him about it, he already knew they were planning to file a lawsuit.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said the forgery claims weren’t part of his investigation into League City’s garbage switch because the incident was said to have happened in Brazoria County.

Sistrunk is investigating whether some members of the League City Council violated the Texas Open Meetings act when it voted to switch from IESI to AmeriWaste. Two council members, Tim Paulissen and Mike Barber, asked him to look into claims that a faction of council gave Marin’s company the city’s garbage contract as part of a previously made deal.

Suspicions arose when Paulissen learned AmeriWaste bought hundreds of new trash bins before the city announced it was looking for a new contractor.