Former Olympic Boxing Champion Sentenced to Prison
Las Vegas, Nev. - A former Olympic boxing champion who won a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Jones to 37 months in prison and ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for his guilty plea to federal identity theft charges, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.
HENRY DURAND TILLMAN, age 43, of Los Angeles, California, pleaded guilty on March 15, 2004, to Fraudulent Possession, Transfer and Use of Identification Documents. He was arrested by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Officers on January 6, 2004, in the area of 7239 Spring Mountain Road in Las Vegas. Police pulled his vehicle over after a Wells Fargo bank teller reported that a woman tried to pass a counterfeit check in the amount of $2,838, and fled the bank and got into TILLMAN'S vehicle. Five other individuals, EBONY JEFF, age 21, of New Jersey, CALVIN MEEKS, age 42, of Los Angeles, DAMIAN VERNELL FLETCHER, age 30, of Las Vegas, TIMOTHY BLAKE, age 35, of Los Angeles, and JOSEPH LEROY WHITEHEAD, age 39, of Las Vegas, were also arrested in the vehicle.
TILLMAN gave consent for officers to search the vehicle. They recovered six counterfeit driver's licenses bearing the photographs of the other persons in the vehicle, 18 counterfeit checks in various company names, and eight counterfeit credit cards in the names of five individuals.
According to the Guilty Plea Memorandum, TILLMAN admitted that he drove EBONY JEFF, CALVIN MEEKS, DAMIAN VERNELL FLETCHER, and TIMOTHY BLAKE, from Los Angeles, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 6, 2004. They met JOSEPH LEROY WHITEHEAD in Las Vegas.
MEEKS and TILLMAN provided counterfeit checks and corresponding identification to EBONY JEFF, who cashed the counterfeit checks for them and received 10 percent of the proceeds. She was instructed to walk out of a bank if challenged while attempting to cash any of the counterfeit checks. JEFF had cashed counterfeit checks on two other occasions for TILLMAN at Wells Fargo Banks in California.
On January 6, 2004, JEFF attempted to cash the counterfeit check to the Wells Fargo Bank at 4016 S. Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas, but the teller observed that the Ohio driver's license presented by JEFF was not legitimate. JEFF fled the bank and returned to the vehicle with the others. TILLMAN instructed all of the passengers to provide him with all other counterfeit checks in their possession, and TILLMAN, using rubber gloves, placed them in an envelope under his seat. Shortly thereafter, their vehicle was pulled over by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Officers.
Co-defendant CALVIN MEEKS, pleaded guilty to Fraudulent Possession, Transfer and Use of Identification Documents and was also sentenced today to 37 months in prison. Co-defendant BLAKE pleaded guilty to Conspiracy, Possessing and Uttering counterfeit and Forged Securities, Fraudulent Possession and Use of Identification Documents and Credit Cards, and Bank Fraud, and is scheduled for sentencing on August 2, 2004, at 1:30 p.m.; co-defendant WHITEHEAD pleaded guilty, and is scheduled for sentencing on August 30, 2004, at 3:00 p.m.; and co-defendants FLETCHER and JEFF both pleaded guilty to Fraudulent Use of Identification Documents. FLETCHER was sentenced on May 17, 2004, to 18 months in prison, and JEFF was sentenced on May 24, 2004, to three years probation.
TILLMAN and MEEKS were also ordered to serve three years of supervised release following their release from prison.
The cases are being investigated by Special Agents with the United States Secret Service, Inspectors with the United States Postal Inspection Service, and Detectives with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, and are part of the Southwestern Identity Theft and Fraud Task Force (SWIFT). They are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney J. Gregory Damm.
