More details: Alleged fake IDers to remain in jail

The alleged counterfeiters from the May 6 fake ID-ring bust on Rugby Road were in court again and will not be leaving jail in the near future as the government amasses evidence against them and promises more charges.

Investigators have found more than $2 million in cash so far– $1.3 million in the house alone and hundreds of thousands of dollars in multiple bank accounts, according to U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy. The May 7 criminal complaint had noted $200,000 was in a safe in the house.

Despite such liquidity, that's not likely to help 31-year-old Alan McNeil Jones. He appeared in court May 16 with attorney (and frequent Hook legal analyst) David Heilberg, who said if Jones' access to legitimate funds to pay his fee fell through, he'd need to move to withdraw from the case.

Heaphy told Judge Waugh Crigler he had a couple of concerns about Jones' ability to hire an attorney, given that four to seven bank accounts and over $1 million cash had been seized and he was unaware of Jones having "a legitimate source of income."

"I understand Mr. Heilberg is expensive," said Crigler.

The judge informed Jones that he had the right to be indicted after a certain period. When Jones consulted Heilberg seated beside him, Crigler said, "I can repeat it. You don't need a translator."

Jones waived a preliminary hearing in which the government produces evidence to establish probable cause within 30 days, and he did not request bail at this time. Nor did his co-defendants, Mark Bernardo and Kelly McPhee.

Currently Jones and McPhee are charged with three felony counts for mail, wire, and false identification fraud. Bernardo is charged with fake ID fraud and money laundering. And U.S. Attorney Heaphy has promised more charges.

Bernardo appeared in court with public defender Fred Heblich, who was assisted by Jessica Phillips. (She's representing Supervisor Chris Dumler, who was in court May 20 seeking dismissal of a petition for his removal from office.)

Heblich told the judge that Bernardo's mother and two sisters were in town from New York, and indicated that his client would like to be considered for bail in the future. Mary Bernardo, who wiped tears from her eyes in court, declined to comment after the hearing.

Of the three defendants, McPhee seems to have the most local ties, and more than a dozen family members and friends were in court for her brief appearance. She seemed more composed than at her appearance a week ago, and once again mouthed, "I love you" to her parents before she was led out.

"All of them had multiple false IDs," said Heaphy. And inside the house at 920 Rugby Road, investigators have found driver's licenses from 15 to 20 states, said Heaphy, as well as student IDs.

The search warrant inventory provided a detailed list of items taken from the house, including 18 firearms. Two Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistols, two Ruger .22-caliber handguns and two Ruger rifles, four Browning 9mm handguns, and a Sears Ted Williams 20-gauge shotgun were among the weaponry, as was a Streetwise stun gun.

Everything needed to produce what investigators described as "high quality fraudulent driver's licenses" was found in the house, including multiple computers, printers, laminators, and driver's license card stock with state-logo holograms, presumably a product not found at Staples.

Several boxes and bags contained U.S. Postal Service envelopes and materials, which the criminal complaint alleges the three used to mail the fake IDs after being paid in cash at a PO box at the main Charlottesville post office.

Cash seemed to be all over the house, given the varying amounts– from $24,017 to $35– listed on the inventory.

The search warrant inventory also notes a safety box key, a bag of "leafy green material," a photo of McPhee firing a weapon, and a fake Connecticut license with her photo on it.

Heaphy acknowledged that he'd never seen a fake ID ring on this scale before.

Read more on: fake IDsrugby road raid

41 comments

So did Candy Crowley of CNN and CIA own the house or not? How about Jones? In what branch of the military was he enlisted? Central Intelligence, perhaps? I thought you were gonna give us some more details...

Pretty white girls should never go to prison. Hopefully the judge, prosecution, and local media will drive this point home for the next several months.

Serious question: why are the two men's mugshots shown, but the woman's glamor shot is shown?

It may prove to be a challenge for the hook to report this story impartially. A pretty white girl is alleged to be part of a criminal conspiracy. The feds are amassing the evidence against her. Instead of her curly locks and bubbly nature, that evidence should be the sole deciding factor of her fate.

Based on the hook's previous story on this alleged criminal, and the editorial decision to print the photo above, it is highly unlikely that this media outlet can report on this story impartially.

The hook has gone downhill.

Bottom line: How much justice can you afford?

Ms McPhee better hope Mommy and Daddy have tons of money for lawyers. Their little girl is going to cost them a bloody fortune.

That was a glamour shot?

"...and driver's license card stock with state-logo holograms, presumably a product not found at Staple's."

Well well well, looks like a news article is the perfect place to try out one's Twitter comedy material. Bravo.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I'm not seeing it here.

Staples not Staple's

So the big question is who is paying the great expensive guru miracle worker Heilberg? oops, he's the Hook's legal expert!

Speaking of Candy Crowley, if someone gave me that candy for Halloween, I'd egg their house!

R.I.P.: Pop Kenesky

Yes, why is Kelly's picture a normal picture and the other two have their mugshots posted? Her picture should be a mugshot here as well. Seems like The Hook is a little biased. Her mugshot looks pretty bad too.

Mr. Heilberg is an experienced attorney, even if perhaps not quite in the top of his class at W&L. Not law review. Still, a good enough lawyer. Is he good enough to ask: how is it they knew to send a SWAT team to a raid on people making fake ID's? How did they know there would be lots of guns in that house, justifying a paramilitary unit with bullet-proof vests and helmets and automatic weapons and stun grenades and the whole nine yards? Could it have been an earlier surreptitious entry? The sort of thing the Bush administration authorized whenever Homeland Security gets involved. And if there was a warrantless search that led to that raid, isn't everything coming after that fruit of the poisonous tree? Speculation of course. Mostly. But the only way to fight police state-tactics is with rigorous application of the law.

Aluminum hat wearer - go READ the articles and stories out there. Apparently at another school, kids were busted for their fake IDs and they informed the authorities how they obtained them, through US Mail (Feds moved in) and paid cash. The authorities had cameras on the PO Box at the Main Post Office here in Charlottesville and they gathered information/intelligence (something you are lacking here). They had warrants, they dotted all their Is and crossed all their Ts. The reason they swooped in as they did is the guns, the fact this went Federal and became a Homeland Security issue as well.

Point is when people like this with the money and arms they have are out there - wouldn't you want the police and authorities to move in as they did?

Go back to watching Faux News now...

Welcome to Virginia. If it wasn't for the fake ID factory you'd be within the bounds of the law. Eighteen firearms. What gives.

"The search warrant inventory provided a detailed list of items taken from the house, including 18 firearms. Two Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistols, two Ruger .22-caliber handguns and two Ruger rifles, four Browning 9mm handguns, and a Sears Ted Williams 20-gauge shotgun were among the weaponry, as was a Streetwise stun gun."

Let's bring back the good ol' times courtesy of an ultra conservative legislature. Go Virginia.

"Federal authorities dubbed Interstate 95 from Virginia to New York the "Iron Corridor" because of the weaponry flowing north from gun shops in Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia. In 1991, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that 40 percent of the 1,236 guns found at crime scenes in New York had been bought in Virginia." http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/virginia-ends-monthly-one-gun-purchase...

So what about those homegrown terrorists getting their hands on those weapons.

What gives would be the second amendment. How else were they supposed to protect all of their illicit gains?

It is odd, though certainly intentional, that the Hook would feature the woman's smiling portrait while the men get mugshots, and that her portrait would bew featured front and center--literally blocking out the other defendants so that their faces are cut in half. We get a clue as to how the coverage for this trial is going to go.

Don't get me started on Heilberg--not surprised at all by his comments. His comment suggests that the defendants would be better served by legal zoom.com in their defense--I am less than impressed with his standards of professionalism in this case and in other arenas--my two cents.

I wonder if there might be more to this story It sounds like, from the amount of money found, and other evidence, that there might be other angles. Hard to believe they made all that selling fake IDs to college and high school kids so that they could buy beer.
Ties to providing fake IDs to homegrown or international terrorist groups possibly? From the amount of armament, they were obviously prepared to protect their ill-gotten gains.

I think it's interesting that the Judge has taught at UVA law for 25+ years. Heathy is a UVA grad, UVA law Grad and also a guest lecturer at UVA and Heilberg's wife works for UVA and his son attends UVA.
Let's look at all the other players in Cville:
Police Chief Longo: his wife and daughter work for UVA and he has guest lectured at UVA law and Darden
Judge Hogshire: UVA law grad, also taught at UVA law
Commonwealth Attorney Chapman: UVA and UVA law grad
Deputy Commonwealth Atty Worrell: Wife is UVA Forensiv nurse & professor
Public Defender James Hingeley: UVA law grad and prof

What looks wrong with this picture? I'm sure its all at arms length but to me it sure smacks of UVA influence and nepotism on local law enforcement and the legal system.

Where is the press? Who is the biggest employer and advertiser in C'ville?

There you have it, the big picture.

Experience with UVa-

This occurred in a small city that is home to a large university (with a large law school) that produces thousands of graduates a year. There are UVa graduates all over this town. Do you think that if someone's child is attending UVa with 20,000 other people, or if they attended themselves, that they're brought into some clandestine UVa network?

Also, what do you think their unified goal would be related to this story?

So.......UVa influence and "nepotism" is behind busting a multi-million dollar fake ID ring because...somehow...that...does something....for UVa. Yes. Makes perfect sense.

Sometimes when you connect the dots all you get is a gigantic swirly mess of lines.

I was surprised to hear southern accents in the south. Suspect it is tied into the above UVa plot.

Hoolarious, repeal the ban, I think you have to also consider the CIA angle proposed by our resident paranoid person for it all to start to make "sense." UVA is an anagram for CIA you know. Or is holograph the word I'm looking for? Anaglyph? I don't know... fluoride in the water makes me feel so sleepy at times that I can't think... but there is an important sounding word that explains it all. You just aren't trying hard enough.

In summary: Non-violet, so what!!!? They broke the law. We all pay taxes to not only protect us, but also to sustain the infrastructure that prevents criminal activity. I hate to see the over simplification of this case by some people. The bottom line is, they all deserve to face to consequences of their CRIMINAL and greedy actions. If they are to be considered "nice, white, middle-class" people, they should also be considered as individuals that obviously understood the extent of their actions and the criminal implication. So, that, in my opinion makes it all the worse. Because it displays contempt for society in general. It is not like what they did can be written-off as some kind of desperate act, but rather just self-serving greed and contempt for everyone else who works hard. I hope that the legal system and those who represent it have enough self-respect, and respect for the system that they represent to wield the full weight of the law on them all! No plea bargains. Do the crime = serve the time!!

And, yes. Take down that stupid, overly smily shot of McPhee and replace it with the mug shot. What on earth were you thinking when posting that!!?

Aw naw put da glamour shot back up mane!!

I think that Kelly McPhee should post her own glamor pics. She could raise some money toward her legal costs, by showing herself naked!! Who's in? I'll pay a dollar for that. But how would we ever know if the skin shots were fakes, or not!

Come on folks, If I was a casting agent looking for someone to play an intelligence agent or special ops guy I'd cast Jones without needing to check out the rest of the applicants. The government likes to issue the fake ID's so they can keep tabs on who has access to them and might be using them for worse than underage drinking. This is obvious. Now don't get me wrong. The Feds don't use this knowledge to fight terrorism, but to control where and when it happens and who gets blamed for it (take the Boston marathon bombing, for instance. They'd been watching those patsys for years). Once you understand this was an undercover op, once you get that this Jones fellow is now playing the role of hamburglar willingly so that he doesn't get suicided in his prision cell, it will finally make perfect sense. But you might first have to get off the fluoride for a few years so that your pineal gland can gradually replace the fluoride crystals that have accumulated there over a lifetime with the calcite and magnetite crystals that are supposed to be there, electromagnetically booting up your brain the way it needs to be booted up in order to think normally and act strongly.

T Breezy luvs a good conspriacy as much as da next 1 mane, but @Someone on dat STUFF. I got faded jus 2 read it one mo again c if it make sense when im bent mane, an it STILL dont make no damn sense. Dont know WAT 2 say bout dat

Should make them use buddy weber as their counsel. They'd be sent up the river for years.

@repeal the ban

I don't think this sting operation has anything to do with UVA.

However, I think it's interesting that these criminals were on Rugby road and our brilliant donut eating traffic police had no idea! Actually had UVA been involved we wouldn't have heard anything about this. The UVA network only works well to protect UVA, not outsiders. That's my point!

As for your lame excuse that it's a small town and there are so many graduates that hang around so it is expected has to be an attempt to be funny. I think its more than just what you say it is. How do you think UVA is able to control so many scandals.

You don't see anything wrong with people in prominent and trusted roles being compromised by receiving some form of remuneration, directly or indirectly, from the most powerful institution in the community? I'm sorry our chief of police should be above suspicion of being compromised, or any other public official since he's not on his own.

The federal government has just been caught with their pants down spying on journalists and much more. So corruption is more prevalent when nobody is checking.

Who is checking on what UVA does? Especially when they have undue influence on the very people that are vested with the powers to enforce our laws.

Do you think its appropriate that Heilberg is BFF with commonwealth attorneys on Facebook? All these people know each other and we have no idea what is said and done "for the public good" behind closed doors. You have to be particularly naive to think these relationships are healthy in a democratic system. This is how corruption evolves and flourishes.

No wonder they have to teach ethics at Law School because most don't know what ethics are, even after they are taught it.

"Someone", you propose an interesting conspiracy theory. Do you have any grounds for your perspective? Genuinely interested in you expanding on your points...

I'm Someone. The involvement of Homeland Security, the martial law ski mask machine gun fest, the 'missing time' between the raid and the arrest of Jones, the statement by one Sabbath Lilly on previous thread stating the home may have been owned by CNN correspondent Candy Crowley, the fact that of all the fake news media outlets the government/CIA/military industrial complex runs or micromanages, CNN is the most obvious and most frequently exposed as such (If Jimmy Page buys the house I guarantee you it was an inside job), the disparity between what people with some apparent knowledge are saying regarding who owns the house on Rugby Road and what the media is saying regarding who owns it, Jones' military background, the lack of details provided by the media regarding Jone's military background, the media headline "more details", the guns, the millions of dollars, the technological sophistication, the fact that Bzigniew Brzezinski created Al Qaida in the late 1970's and the U.S. government's been managing it ever since, the clear motive of the government (besides the lunch money) to manage the production of fake I.D.'s so that every purchaser of a fake I.D. can be tracked, watched, monitored to determine the I.D.'s primary function, the statements by the mother of the Tsarnaev brothers that they were set up and that the Feds had been watching them for years, the reports that they were being managed by a CIA controlled Imam who sent them money and advice, the eyewitness reports of hundreds of backpacks being left on the sidewalk in Boston and of being told "remain calm, it's just a drill" before it went live, the obvious likelihood that there are probably dozens of sleeper cells similar to this one operating in this country who are being funded, controlled, (and furnished with fake I.D.'s when necessary) by proxy by the U.S. government so that they can have a false flag bombing complete with plan A patsys (patriotic redneck looking individual with a backpack who was probably told he could get a criminal charge reduced if he takes part in a terror attack drill not realizing he will be taken into custody and down to the courthouse afterwards where the media will be reporting "we have a suspect in custody") and Plan B patsys (for when anonymous individuals unexpectedly send Alex Jones security videos of the Tsarnaev brothers with their backpacks and the Drudge Report breaks it at that very same moment the media at the Boston courthouse is about to go with plan A but suddenly has to change - and does suddenly change on live television - their story to plan B) any time they need one, like on a newsday where the story of the day would naturally be that Congressmen Asa Hutchinson and James Jones had just called for the indictment of the current President and former President for war crimes. Unless a bomb went off at the Boston Marathon, in which case that news would be totally bypassed.
Why would they would bust their own operation, you might ask? It could be a case of one hand of government not knowing what the other is doing, it could be a case of Jones getting out of their control or not paying his cut, it could be that the local police were getting wise and the Feds wanted to control how the bust played out if it was gonna happen so that no classified information was disclosed to the media (or so they could coordinate damage control ahead of time with the media and perhaps even Jones himself). It could just be a good excuse to wheel out the armored vehicles and play elite ninja warrior for a few hours. Just a hunch, really.

@Hook Reader

You should be writing books!

We all know Saddam and Bin Ladin worked for the USA for many years and our beloved CIA does sinister things around the globe but you've taken it to another level. Half a century ago we were loved around the world because of American Exceptionalism. Today, we are hated because just as they lie to their own people our government is not trusted. They lie and mislead other governments. They renege on commitments, double cross allies and throw those who work for us under the bus. I'm not pointing fingers at either Obama or Bush. This is just our crappy short term made for convenience foreign policy. We have let down every dictator who was our ally in the ME for years. From the Shah to Mubarak. The Kurds in Northern Iraq after Gulf War 1 to the Syrian and Iranian people in recent history. Look how we treat our own vets. Our leaders send them to war and then discard them.

Welcome to Rome! Perhaps if we taught some history and geography in schools our current politicians might have a primer on geo-political matters instead of indulging in self serving corrupt politics on both sides of the aisle all the while pretending to have an ideology.

@Someone & @Experience with UVA

These certainly are some interesting perspectives! It guess we will have to see how the court case plays out. I hope that you are both overly paranoid, and that in truth your conspiracy theories hold no water, however, looking back at the clandestine track record of the United States, some of your (collective) points do seem plausible.

With all of that said, let's not get drawn into too much of a tangent, and remain anchored to the case at hand: (Alleged) Fake ID ring busted in Charlottesville.

On the previous thread, I posted a link to an April 2013, tweet by Stephen Jacques, the home owner. In it, he references the address on Rugby Rd, mentions that he sold a house to either Candy Crowley or her son, and had to be out by July . It's possible that he was not referring to this house, but another he owns. The tweet was somewhat garbled.

I wasn't implying subterfuge or CIA involvement, merely mentioning a potential interesting detail to the story. Okay, back to the IDs!

@c'ville native..."go back to watching faux news???"
That's classic. So, you don't watch Fox news? Then you must be unaware that one of our ambassadors and 3 of Americas finest were murdered by terrorists while the white house spun the thing as having to do with some obscure video in an effort hide there gross incompetence in an election year. The news sources you watch/read backed them up on that until the truth became painfully obvious. Obama does not remember where he was while this was going down. Somebody gave the order to stand down when our Rangers requested permission to go to their aid; it could have saved their lives. From my understanding, only POTUS has the authority to do that. You must also be unaware that the IRS is now making up the rules as they go, rubber stamping liberal non-profits and stonewalling conservative non-profits for the last 3 years. White House is heavily involved in that one as well. Did you know that our justice department is wire tapping and secretly monitoring emails of reporters of Fox news and the AP? Eric Holder, as usual, doesn’t know anything about it and is going to stone wall congress just like he did during the Fast & Furious hearings. And he called us a “Nation of cowards?” He needs to look in the mirror. Of course you don't know these things because the news you watch has an agenda that does not promote anything in a bad light that has to do with Obama and his appointees. Even when it involves matters of national importance. None of them know anything, Obama, Hilary, Eric Holder, Jim Carney, the head of the IRS.....just who is running this country? Hard to tell at this point. Ignorance is what the Obama press is counting on, you are a good sheeple c’ville native, and you are probably safe from government stomping on your constitutional rights, simply because you are a liberal. But, I can tell you that the result of big runaway government will find its way into your life one day and you will probably wonder to yourself “How can these things happen in America?”
By writing the above I have set myself up for an IRS audit, an ATF raid, wiretapping and an OSHA visit. Did you know that conservative non-profits have been subjected to all of the aforementioned in the last 12 months under the direction of “someone” in the White House…but of course, no one knows who and Obama is “outraged”? Right, if you believe that, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. But of course you don’t about any of this because you don’t watch faux news.

@Experience with UVA

Don 't think it surprising, in UVA town, that many if not most of the lawyers went to the local UVA. Doesn't necessarily mean anything at all.

However, sometimes it does. Ironically, out of your list, you left out District Judge Moon's connections with UVA. Moon has as much as admitted from the bench that he gets steamed by aspersions cast on UVA. One poor attorney came up from Fla to defend his UVA son on some UVA issue, and got what he described as chewed out by Moon for daring to insinuate wrongdoing by UVA -- he later called around a number of local attorneys to ask what the story was because, according to him, he'd never before been treated in such a manner.

@WhoaNelly: Thank you for your post. Truer words were never written here. Apparently, Cville Native is happy with the Democrat Party line he gets from Sawyer/Pelley/Williams and wants to remain ignorant about what's really happening.

Paul Tudor Jones UVA Masogynist: Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2013 Article

Paul Tudor Jones and His ‘Careless’ Remarks About Women:
Wall Street Journal, May 24, 2013
By David Benoit and Steven Russolillo

"A billionaire hedge-fund manager found himself embroiled in controversy this week not for his trades or pay checks but for his remarks on female traders.

Bloomberg News

Paul Tudor Jones, the head of Tudor Investment Corp., told an audience at the University of Virginia that he thinks it’s difficult for mothers to be successful macro-traders if they have a baby, because of the potential for distraction.

Jones said in his experience having a child is a “killer” for any desire to trade, adding “as soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it,” while motioning to his chest, according to a video posted by the Washington Post.

He did note he is a father of four children, three of them girls, and called motherhood a “beautiful” experience, but questioned a woman’s ability to pull away for traders. He said he didn’t believe it was the case for managers and noted he felt similar concern about distractions for traders going through a divorce.

Jones is a well-known trader who founded the Robin Hood Foundation, which raises millions from Wall Street to fight poverty in New York, and who hosts a rather large display of Christmas lights at his home in Greenwich, Conn., though he typically avoids the spotlight like this.

In a statement, Jones walked back the “off-the cuff remarks,” saying they were specific to “global macro traders, who are on-call 24/7.”

“I believe that great success is possible in any field — from music to mathematics to macro trading — as long as a woman or man has the skill, passion, and repetitions to work through the inevitable life events that arise along the way,” he added.

But the comments had already caught the social-media scene and blogosphere, where a debate on women in the workforce has recently been carried by Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, who published a book on the topic this year that’s currently No. 2 on the best-seller list, and former Lehman Brothers’ CFO Erin Callan. Former Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck last week bought a women’s networking group, 85 Broads, to “invest” in women, citing the ongoing debate.

Sheila Wellington, an executive-in-residence at NYU’s Stern School of Business and former president of Catalyst, a women’s leadership organization, said the debate has picked up this year and been interesting.

“Financial-services companies have made some strides and have recognized you simply can’t write off the brains of 50% of the world’s population,” Wellington said, while adding Jones seemed to have “written off” that population.

Kate Warne, investment strategist at St. Louis-based Edward Jones, which manages $670 billion, said Tudor Jones’ comments crossed her radar this week, but she didn’t dwell on them.

“It’s rude and inappropriate, but beyond that it doesn’t have much of an impact on me,” she said in an interview with MoneyBeat. “We all shrugged and moved on.”...