3 Counterfeiting Suspects Arrested : Raid Caps Probe Into Sale of Fake Identification Cards to County Teens

The teen-agers called him “Joe the I.D. man,” and on nights and weekends they poured into a store named Kitchens To Go in Orange to pay him $60 each for their fake, out-of-state identification cards, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles.

On Monday, the man identified by investigators as Joe was arrested along with two others in morning raids at the store and at two apartments in Huntington Beach and Orange. The three are suspected of selling phony driver’s licenses to at least 200 teen-agers from Orange County since 1989, said Tim A. Landrus, a supervising special investigator for the DMV.

The girlfriend of one of the suspects “told us every kid in Huntington Beach must have one,” Landrus said.

The arrests capped a six-month investigation that started after employees at Tijuana Jones, a Westminster nightclub, complained of being inundated with minors presenting out-of-state driver’s licenses at the door, DMV investigator Eugene Devellerez said.

The employees began to closely study these licenses, confiscating the fake ones and turning them over to detectives. Officials were aided by the fact that most of the minors used their own names on the counterfeit documents, and computer checks showed their real ages and addresses, Devellerez said.

Investigators called the teen-agers and in interviews were told about Kitchens To Go and Joe the I.D. man, Landrus said.

The youths said that people at gatherings such as concerts had handed out business cards that advertised the phony documents service. For $60 each, minors could get an out-of-state driver’s license with a corroborating college identification card, authorities said.

At 7 a.m. Monday, two teams of DMV officials and local police officers armed with search-and-arrest warrants simultaneously pounded on the doors of an apartment on Delaware Street in Huntington Beach and another on Orange Olive Road in Orange.

When no one answered, they broke down the doors and surprised the still-groggy suspects. Arrested without incident were John Overholser, 26, of Huntington Beach and Roger Smith, 23, and Ken Walker, 32, both of Orange.

None of them have records but Overholser has at least 13 guns registered to his name, Landrus said.

In Overholser’s apartment, officials found a stamp kit with seals of states from Maryland to Nevada, blank license forms, assorted counterfeit licenses already laminated, three guns, a double-edged dagger, more than a pound of marijuana and a small amount of what appeared to be cocaine.

Overholser, sitting with his hands handcuffed on his living room sofa as detectives searched his apartment, denied making phony identification cards and said a former roommate was responsible. He only helped the roommate get the blank out-of-state license forms, he said.

“He has caused me a lot of trouble,” Overholser said. The roommate had abruptly left town several months ago after stealing $20,000 worth of goods from him, including most of his guns, he added.

Authorities said it was more likely that Overholser sold the weapons.

Investigators also found a large photography backdrop and a fake identification at Kitchens To Go, a cabinetry shop owned by Smith and Walker in Orange, Landrus said.

Three other suspects in the case remain at large, Landrus said.

One of them was detained several months ago in Westminster for trying to use a stolen credit card with a phony out-of-state driver’s license, he said. The woman, a Huntington Beach resident who was not identified Monday, was questioned by DMV officials and turned out to be Overholser’s girlfriend, Landrus said. She was subsequently allowed to go home.

Investigators tried to arrest her Monday but she was not home and did not show up at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress, Landrus said.

Overholser, identified by youths interviewed as Joe the I.D. man, Landrus said, has at least 10 aliases, according to items found in his apartment Monday. A phony private investigator’s identification card shows his photo with the accompanying name of Daniel Dalton. A prescription bottle for antibiotics has a label for patient John Banks.

When asked about those two names, Overholser said he bought the counterfeit private investigator card from a bookstore in Hollywood and that John Banks is his pen name as a writer.

On his coffee table were several books about how to develop and sell television scripts. In a kitchen drawer were four homemade firecrackers and a book about how to make disposable silencers.

Investigators found green cards throughout his apartment that read: “$60 for two forms of I.D., must bring two people per appearance, call Jim at 714-890-7571.” There were also pink cards with the same message but a different phone number. Both phone numbers were answered by voice mails Monday.

Because Overholser was the primary suspect, he was held in lieu of $100,000 bail, while the two others were held in lieu of $10,000 each, authorities said. They were booked on suspicion of counterfeiting state seals, a felony.

John T. Fallan, a game warden with the state Department of Fish and Game, said Overholser also may face charges of keeping a raven as a pet, which is illegal because it is a native bird of California.

The young black bird, which squawked repeatedly during the raid, was not yet able to fly and was kept in a green bucket in Overholser’s den. He said it fell out of a tree in Palm Desert and he was feeding it until it grew. The raven was turned over to the Department of Fish and Game.