ST. GEORGE — A Cedar City man and a Las Vegas man and woman were arrested Thursday on a variety of forgery and drug-related charges after allegedly passing counterfeit money at a St. George hotel.

At approximately 6:25 a.m. Thursday, officers responded to a counterfeiting incident at America’s Best Inn, located at 245 N. Red Cliffs Drive in St. George, according to a probable cause statement written by St. George Police Officer Jeffrey Ashworth in support of the arrest.

An employee provided police with two $100 bills that were identified as counterfeit because they shared the same serial number and were missing proper markings, as well as a $50 bill that did not have the embedded tag or watermark, the statement said.

The employee then directed the officers to the room where the individuals who allegedly passed the counterfeit bills were staying.

As officers approached the room, they could hear people talking inside. As they waited for backup, a woman, later identified as Valerie Nabor, 34, of Las Vegas, exited the room, leaving the security latch between the door and the frame which made it so officers could see in the room.

“I observed a male sitting on the far bed,” Ashworth wrote in the statement. “I watched as this male put a glass pipe up to his mouth and then used a lighter underneath it … I pushed open the door and advised the male who quickly stood up and put the pipe in his left pocket to show me his hands and come out of the room.”

The man, identified as 34-year-old Dennis Perry Law or “Major D,” of Las Vegas, admitted the pipe contained methamphetamine. Law also admitted to being a convicted felon and that he should not be in possession of a knife police found in his back pocket, according to Ashworth’s statement.

During this time, another man was located in the bathroom of the hotel room who identified himself as 31-year-old Jameil Lainarr Brown, of Cedar City.

Law gave police consent to search a Raiders backpack found inside the room, Ashworth said.

“In the backpack I observed paper that appeared consistent with some of the counterfeit bills collected as well as counterfeit detection markers, and ink eraser,” Ashworth wrote in the statement.

Nabor told the detectives she did not know the money was counterfeit, but later said she had a “feeling” it was fake, according to a statement of probable cause. She said that while paying for the room, Law and Brown told her they didn’t have identification and told her to pay for the room with the fake money.

Nabor, who initially tried to give officers two different false identities because of a second-degree felony warrant for her arrest, told officers she had a needle and syringe loaded with methamphetamine in her bag on the bed, according to a probable cause statement.

Officers also located methamphetamine in another area of the room but none of the three occupants would admit to possessing it or knowing it was there, Ashworth said.

Law, Nabor and Brown were arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.

Law

Law was charged with three third-degree felonies for forgery, possession of a forgery device, and drug possession, and a class B misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia.

Judge Jeffrey Wilcox, of the 5th District Court, ordered $15,500 bail for Law’s release pending trial. Law was found indigent by the court during his initial court appearance Friday and will be represented by court-appointed attorney Jay Winward. He is scheduled to make his next court appearance on May 15.

Nabor

Nabor was charged with two third-degree felonies for forgery and drug possession, a class A misdemeanor for possession of another’s identifying documents, a class B misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia, and a class C misdemeanor for giving a false identity to a police officer.

Judge Jeffrey Wilcox, of the 5th District Court, ordered $12,500 bail for Nabor’s release pending trial. Nabor was found indigent by the court during her initial court appearance Friday and will be represented by court-appointed attorney Michael Lastowski. She is scheduled to make her next court appearance on May 15.

Brown

Brown was initially charged with two third-degree felonies for forgery and drug possession.

Judge Jeffrey Wilcox, of the 5th District Court, ordered $10,000 bail for Brown’s release pending trial. Brown was found indigent by the court during his initial court appearance Friday and will be represented by court-appointed attorney Jay Winward. He is scheduled to make his next court appearance on May 15.

On Friday, Brown received an additional forgery charge when another counterfeit bill was located in his basketball shorts while he was incarcerated at the Purgatory Correctional Facility.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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