By ANITA BURKE
Mail Tribune

Investigators seeking evidence of a counterfeiting operation at a Medford home seized computer equipment and hand grenades, then arrested three people Wednesday.

Police across Southern Oregon and Northern California have received a spate of reports of counterfeit cash in the past several weeks, Medford police Lt. Mike Moran said. Fake bills ranging from $1 to $100 have been reported, he said.

"Someone has been flooding the area with counterfeit bills," Detective Sgt. Tim Doney said. "It was a shock to see the $1 bills, but we were really getting hammered with fives, tens, twenties and hundreds."

He said Medford police had received 21 recent reports of counterfeit bills, including one Wednesday while investigators were serving a search warrant on the suspected counterfeiting operation. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, police in Central Point and Phoenix, and the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department in Northern California also have taken reports.

Advertisement

Details from those reports combined with information detectives picked up on the street last fall led to the search warrant served Wednesday morning at a home in the 500 block of Midway Road in north Medford, Moran said.

Officers and detectives from the Medford and Central Point police departments seized computers and scanners believed to be used in counterfeiting currency, Moran said.

They also found four hand grenades, including two fragmentation-type grenades. Officers called the Oregon State Police bomb squad to retrieve and ultimately destroy the grenades, Moran said.

Police arrested Michael James Curtis, 32, on five counts of computer crime, three counts of first-degree forgery, three counts of conspiracy to commit forgery and four counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. He was lodged in the Jackson County Jail, where he remained Wednesday night on $75,000 bail.

Police arrested Eric Hansen, 38, on two counts each of possession of a destructive device and being a felon in possession of a weapon, as well as a probation violation charge. They also arrested Wendy Rodrigues, 34, on a probation violation charge. Hansen and Rodrigues were jailed without bail.

All three people arrested listed the same Midway Road address.

Police also summoned Medford building department officials to that location because of waste-disposal and electrical violations at the property, which includes a main house, several outbuildings and a travel trailer where Curtis lived.

The trailer wasn’t properly connected to electrical or wastewater systems, Moran said.

Building officials posted "Do Not Enter" signs because the property was deemed hazardous and said they would shut off power to the property if the problems weren’t fixed promptly.

Additionally, a 13-year-old was taken into protective custody by a Department of Human Services caseworker, police said.

"It was a bigger mess than we expected," Moran said.

It is the same home where an unsupervised 2-year-old drowned in a swimming pool in May 2005. The boy’s mother, Jessica Shine, pleaded no contest to a charge of criminally negligent homicide in January and is set to be sentenced this week.

Investigators continue to unravel leads in the counterfeiting case and warn merchants to be on the lookout for fake bills. Clerks should note details of any suspicious transactions for police, Moran said.

The Secret Service, which has jurisdiction for investigations involving counterfeiting of U.S. currency, offers a guide to detecting fake bills at www.secretservice.gov/know_your_money.shtml on the Web.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail aburke@mailtribune.com.