Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Tucumcari Police Department investigation into counterfeit money led to the arrest a local woman, who has been charged with 18 felonies.
On Friday, police arrested Shari Evans, 39, of Tucumcari, said Officer Reyes Gonzales.
Gonzales said a search warrant was issued for Evans' residence, where police found several items of interest.
"There were items related to counterfeiting and forgery which were taken into evidence," Gonzales said.
Evans was arrested and is charged with 11 counts of forgery and seven counts of issuing a worthless check, according to court documents. She is currently being held at the Quay County Detention Center on a $50,000 cash bond.
Gonzales said Evans was a person of interest in an earlier investigation of counterfeiting. He said as the investigation progressed the department received additional reports of forgery involving Evans.
According to court documents, Gonzales received reports from three financial institutions and three retail stores for fraudulent checks concerning Evans.
Gonzales said further investigation into the matters led to department to request the search warrant for Evans' residence.
In December, Deputy Chief Peter Rivera said detectives were close to obtaining a warrant for a suspect believed to be responsible other incidents.
Rivera said officers were investigating three incidents of counterfeit, one of which they believed to be unrelated to the first two.
"The quality of the counterfeit money collected from the first two incidents was lower than the one collected from the third," Rivera said.
Rivera said the denomination of the counterfeit bills passed were $50 and $100.
The 10th Judicial District Attorney's office has not assigned a prosecutor to this case and no court date has been set.