CLARKSTON, WA – A 26-year-old Clarkston man was arrested Sunday afternoon for allegedly passing a fake $20 bill at Walgreens on Bridge Street on August 29th. According to a Probable Cause Affidavit, Kenyen Lewis was booked into the Asotin County Jail on one count of Forgery along with an outstanding warrant for Driving While License Suspended – 3rd out of Whitman County. His bond was set at $10,000.
The court document says Lewis was not identified until Sunday when he was detained at Walmart for an alleged shoplifting incident. One of the responding Clarkston Police officers who had been investigating the counterfeit money incident immediately recognized Lewis from the surveillance videos at Walgreens, the affidavit says.
“Kenyen even was wearing the same hat as seen in the surveillance video,” the CPD officer says in the document.
“In the video, Kenyen walks up to the cashier and has the clerk scan his phone to place money on his “Cash App”, before paying. Kenyen then tosses the counterfeit $20 onto the counter and walks out,” according to the affidavit. “The cashier knows the bill is fake but the employees are not allowed to question the customer, and lets Kenyen walk out. The cashier then calls for management to her register and gives him the bill.”
On Sunday, police questioned Lewis about the Walgreens incident and the affidavit says he told officers that the $20 bill came from his grandma “who had just got it from the bank,” and he denied knowing it was a fake, the document adds.
During questioning, Lewis reportedly continued to claim the counterfeit money had come from his grandmother but his story changed after he was handcuffed and placed into the back of a patrol car, according to the affidavit.
“Kenyen then started to cry and changed his story,” the officer says in the court document.
Lewis reportedly explained that the bill came from [a female] who “owed him money” and “paid him with the fake bill,” the affidavit says.
“Although the counterfeit bill was a horrible fake, Kenyen still denied knowing that the bill was counterfeit,” the document states. “Any right-minded person would have known that this bill was counterfeit.”
