The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Billings, on June 1, 2011, before Chief U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, SCOTT EDWARD ROZELL, a 42-year-old resident of Billings, appeared for sentencing. ROZELL was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 6 months

Special Assessment: $100

Restitution: $1,400

Supervised Release: 3 years

ROZELL was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to counterfeiting.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan M. Archer, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

In July and August 2010, thousands of dollars in counterfeit federal reserve notes were being passed in the Billings area. These were in denominations of $20, $50 and $100 bills.

On August 24, 2010, the Billings Police Department received a complaint from S.R. who operated a corn stand in the Heights. Over the course of August 23rd and 24th, an individual in a gold older-model Lexus had purchased $5 of corn from her several times. Each time he paid her with $50 bills. When she tried to use one of the $50's, she discovered it was counterfeit. She was able to describe the individual and the vehicle and gave a license plate number.

On August 27, 2010, the gold Lexus was stopped by local police. Officers had been searching for the vehicle and upon locating it, discovered that the owner, C.A., had an outstanding warrant for a traffic violation. When officers stopped the vehicle, they discovered ROZELL and C.A. in the vehicle. They consented to a search and officers discovered over $1,400 in counterfeit notes on C.A. Of the several notes, two serial numbers were the same as two of the $50 passed to S.R. at the corn stand a few days earlier. S.R. was shown a photo lineup of individuals and positively identified ROZELL as the individual who passed counterfeit $50 bills to her on August 23-24, 2010. During the stop, C.A. admitted the money he had was fake, but said that he would not actually pass any of it since it "isn't right."

Further investigation revealed that on July 20, 2010, Billings Police Officers recovered counterfeit $20 federal reserve notes from a casino in the Heights. The cashier stated that a man came into the casino and made change with the counterfeit $20's. She could not positively identify ROZELL from a photo lineup, but said that it looked like him. Video surveillance shows that the individual who passed the counterfeit $20's appears to be ROZELL.

Around this time, D.P. was also arrested on a probation violation and was discovered passing counterfeit. He told the case agent that C.A. was printing counterfeit and ROZELL was passing it.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that ROZELL will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, ROZELL does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service.

 

 

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