By Ernest Herndon, The Enterprise-Journal (McComb, Miss.)
Magnolia, Miss. -- In a case that changed McComb Police Department policy, a Summit man is suing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for having him arrested on a mistaken charge of passing counterfeit money.
The jury began deliberations today in the Pike County Circuit Court civil trial of Malcolm McComb III vs. Wal-Mart.
In testimony Monday, McComb, 29, said he cashed his Sanderson Farms paycheck at Jitney-Jungle on Sunday, April 18, 1999, then went to the McComb Wal-Mart to shop.
When he handed a $100 bill to the cashier, she summoned store officials Lori Ann Bates and Michael Evans, who suspected the bill was counterfeit and called police.
“The male officer told me to empty my pockets,” McComb testified. “I emptied my pockets. He searched me and said I was under arrest for counterfeit money. It made me feel embarrassed and angry.”
The officer, David Lee Adams, handcuffed McComb, led him out the front door and put him in the back of a patrol car - all under the eyes of other shoppers.
At the police station, “I was fingerprinted, mugshotted and placed in a room (cell),” said McComb, who said he had never been arrested before.
He called his mentor, Lavelt Steptoe Sr., and two hours later McComb was released on his own recognizance.
McComb said he had to take off work the next day - costing him $50 in wages - to go to the police station, where he learned the bill was authentic and charges had been dropped.
Store official Lori Ann Bates testified that, while she had never been trained in how to detect counterfeit money, McComb’s $100 bill looked fake.
It lacked the words “In God We Trust,” a special identification strip and a watermark. Also, a special pen indicated it was phony as well.
“If it shows brown, that means something is wrong, and if it’s a grayish color everything is OK,” Bates said.
McComb’s bill showed brown, so she summoned assistant manager Evans.
Evans said he decided to call the police to find out if the bill was bogus.
“That’s the reason I called the police department, to get their opinion on it,” he said. “I wasn’t going to accuse anybody.”
Officer Adams said he called headquarters and was told to bring McComb in.
“It was new to me and I hadn’t had any training in a counterfeit bill,” he said.
But police later found the bill was authentic. It was a 1950 series, which looks different from later bills and does not react the same under the special pen, noted McComb’s attorney Ed Bean of McComb.
“Since then we’ve developed more guidelines,” Adams acknowledged.
Now officers take the information and the money, let detectives decide whether it’s real, then make an arrest if necessary, he said.
Also testifying was Steptoe.
Edley H. Jones III of Ridgeland is defending Wal-Mart in the case before Judge Mike Smith.