More Than 100 Counterfeit Bills Found In Car, Cops Say

A group of three New York men were arrested and charged last week in Middletown after one attempted to purchase Beats headphones with counterfeit $10 bills.

Kishawn Samuels, 25, of Queens, New York, was charged with two felonies and four misdemeanors in the case. He was arraigned and sent to prison on 10 percent of $50,000 bail.  Tremayne Walker, 18, of Brooklyn, New York, was charged with one felony and two misdemeanors. He was arraigned and released on 10 percent of $7,500. Xavier Graham, 18, of Brooklyn, New York, was charged with one felony and two misdemeanors in the case. He was arraigned and sent to prison on 10 percent of $7,500 bail.

According to a probable cause affidavit, police responded to the Staples office supply store on Friday after getting a call that a male – later identified as Graham – was attempting to make a purchase with counterfeit currency. Officers noted a red Jeep Grand Cherokee bearing a Tennessee license plate, and occupied with several males, was seen in the parking lot during the incident.

The store’s manager noted to police that Graham had attempted to purchase a set of Beats headphones, which retail for about $200. When the manager became suspicious of the $10 bills, he fed them through an electronic bill checking machine, before calling police. The manager noted each of the $10 bills bore the same serial number. While he noted to police that he tried to stall the transaction until police arrived, he was unable to do so, according to court documents.

Officers, noting a strong smell of marijuana, then approached the SUV parked in the store’s parking lot. When police instructed the driver, later identified as Samuels, to exit the vehicle, 11 additional counterfeit $10 bills were found folded in half on the floor. Like the bills used inside the Staple’s store, each of these bills also held the same serial number, court papers state.

Graham, who was found inside the vehicle, was positively identified via digital images and by the store manager as the man that attempted to purchase the headphones, according to court papers.

A sum of 102 counterfeit bills were found throughout the vehicle, in addition to “an unknown type of brown organic matter”, a marijuana type cigarette, a package of rolling papers, a metal marijuana grinder with marijuana residue, two small clear baggies, a beats headphone box, and bags of recently purchased merchandise.

The brown matter, according to police records, was later identified as fronto leaf.

Graham provided a statement to police while at headquarters indicating the group had left New York that afternoon to go shopping, and that they drove straight to the area to purchase items at Staples, Target, Home Depot and Barnes and Noble. He indicated Samuels had given him $100 in counterfeit $10 bills to make the purchase at Barnes and Noble.

In total, police uncovered $1,020 in counterfeit bills from the vehicle.

All three men await a preliminary hearing with a district judge set for June 11.

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.