The Bay County Sheriff’s Office arrested a local man today who attempted to pay a fine at the Bay County Courthouse with counterfeit bills.
When John Sheldon Jernigan gave the clerk at the Courthouse $400 to pay his trespassing fine, she observed that the bills looked unusual. Upon closer inspection, she noticed that many of the bills had the same exact serial number. The bills, all $20’s, proved to be counterfeit.
The astute clerk called a deputy to the counter and Jernigan was arrested and charged with thirteen counts of Uttering a Counterfeit Bill.
When investigators spoke with Jernigan, he initially claimed he received pay at his job in cash and it must have been counterfeit. Jernigan later changed his story and claimed he didn’t know where he obtained the counterfeit cash.
Jernigan carried a total of twenty-six counterfeit bills with him today. Twenty-two were $20’s and four were $50’s. There were only four different serial numbers used.
Jernigan, age 26, of Kelly Street on Panama City Beach, was taken to the Bay County Jail and booked.