Santa Clara County prosecutors have decided not to file
charges
– for now, at least – against two women whom sheriff’s deputies
arrested Thursday in a Morgan Hill motel room, surrounded by more
than $10,000 in counterfeit bills and all the equipment necessary
to make them.
Gilroy – Santa Clara County prosecutors have decided not to file charges – for now, at least – against two women whom sheriff’s deputies arrested Thursday in a Morgan Hill motel room, surrounded by more than $10,000 in counterfeit bills and all the equipment necessary to make them.
Instead, the county will wait for the results of a U.S. Secret Service investigation before making its next move.
In the meantime, 23-year-old Renee McCormick of Santa Cruz and 21-year-old Kelsey Welty of Soquel were expected to walk out of the Santa Clara County jail Tuesday night without charges, according to county Deputy District Attorney Amir Alum.
“There are times when we want the investigation completed, for one reason or another, … prior to making a decision so we have all the facts, all the evidence in front of us,” Alum said Tuesday.
A third suspect, 32-year-old Richard Upshaw of Santa Cruz, will remain in jail under a hold order by the U.S. Marshals. Upshaw was a fugitive at the time of his arrest, wanted by the federal government on prior counterfeiting charges. Thursday marked at least his third counterfeiting-related arrest, according to sheriff’s detective Julian Quiñonez.
“He’s not going anywhere,” said Deputy District Attorney Mark Hood, supervisor of the DA’s office in San Martin.
McCormick was on probation at the time of her arrest and has a probation revocation hearing scheduled for Sept. 9 in Palo Alto, but jail spokesman Mark Cursi said the county Probation Department had not placed a hold on her.
Prosecutors’ refusal to elaborate on their decision to defer charges begged several questions:
– Did deputies come up with insufficient evidence to prove a crime against the women?
– Are the women being used as informants to catch more serious criminals?
No and no, Quiñonez said Tuesday.
Quiñonez admitted the current situation makes it look like deputies’ evidence is in doubt, but that is not the case, he said.
“We have more than 50 items of evidence,” Quiñonez said. In the room at the Holiday Motel on Monterey Road, deputies found fake $100, $50, $20, $10 and $5 bills – some with only one side printed – plus paper, inks, a laptop computer with the back of a $100 bill on its screen and a printer/scanner with bill-sized paper loaded into it and a security strip on its scanning bed. Deputies also found small amounts of methamphetamine and marijuana, plus pipes for smoking the drugs.
Less than an hour before the bust, deputies said McCormick used a fake $100 bill to pay for beer and hair products at a market in San Martin.
What it comes down to, Quiñonez said, is that the federal government’s case against the trio trumps the local one. Manufacturing counterfeit bills violates federal, not state, law. Possessing or passing a counterfeit bill can be a state offense, as can possessing the materials used to make them, but not making the bills.
Deputies originally booked the trio into jail on drug and forgery charges, but these are on hold until the Secret Service gets its case together, Quiñonez said.
That’s fine, though, he added, because “Time is in our favor.” If the federal government presses both drug and counterfeiting charges against the women, the county can rest.
“If not, then we still have our case,” the detective said. “All we do is resubmit it to the DA and then we’ll have a warrant.”
But couldn’t the women do more counterfeiting while they are out? That’s possible, but unlikely, Quiñonez said.
“The brains of that operation is still in custody, I think,” he said, referring to Upshaw.
When booked, McCormick and Welty were awaiting $30,000 bail. Are they flight risks? In other words, if a warrant is issued at a later date, will authorities be able to find them?
“I don’t know,” Alum said.
McCormick and Welty were originally scheduled to be arraigned in the San Martin courthouse Tuesday afternoon.
Upshaw, in addition to federal charges, faces a state warrant for previous forgery and drug charges.
Peter Crowley is a staff writer. He can be reached at 408-842-6400, or by email at [email protected]
