| Spencer Newspapers is reporting counterfeit money has appeared in Roane County for a second time within two weeks.
The Roane County Sheriff's Department made an arrest of a Clendenin man who had counterfeit $10 and $20 bills, the bills appeared to be "high quality."
Last week police arrested Ohio subjects on the Wal Mart parking lot in Spencer, after they attempted to pass counterfeit bills.
More counterfeit bills found here
By David Hedges, Publisher
www.thetimesrecord.net
For the second time in as many weeks, local police have made an arrest for counterfeit money.
Roane Sheriff's Deputy Mike King stopped a Chevrolet Cavalier on U.S. 119 south of Walton around 5 p.m. last Thursday for an expired registration.
When the driver, Jason Wayne Roush, 27, of 51 River Haven Rd., Clendenin, reached into his pants pocket to get his driver's license, something else came out.
King said several $10 and $20 bills fell to the ground.
"When he pulled his hand out, that's when the money came out," King said.
Roush made no effort to retrieve the cash.
"When I asked him why he wouldn't pick it up, he didn't say anything," King said.
King thought the bills might contain drugs and asked Roush to get back in his car while he reached down to get the money off the ground. When he did, he found five $20 bills, all with the same serial number, and thirteen $10 bills, also with matching numbers.
King's complaint said a passenger identified as Roush's girlfriend, Carmen Lang, also had a $20 bill in her possession that matched the serial number of the other bills.
King said the bills seemed authentic.
"They looked real," he said. "It looked like pretty good quality to me."
In fact, had it not been for another recent experience, King said he might not have checked the serial numbers at all.
King assisted Spencer police officers when they searched a vehicle at the Walmart parking lot the previous week and found several counterfeit $10 and $20 bills. Three persons from Ohio were arrested for allegedly trying to pass counterfeit bills at some local stores.
King said officers do not think the two cases are related.
"We don't believe so," he said. "The serial numbers (on the bills) didn't match."
As they did in the first counterfeiting case, federal Secret Service agents came to Spencer to interview the suspect.
Roush was charged with possession of counterfeit money, operating a vehicle with improper registration and no proof of insurance.
He was lodged in the Central Regional Jail that night, and arraigned the next day by Roane Magistrate Russell Goodwin, who set bond at $11,000.
Roush was released on bond this week.
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