16 Charged for Cashing Bad Checks in Middlesex County

The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office arrested 16 people who were part of an ongoing scheme to pass bad checks in four counties this summer.

Before they were caught, the group collected more than $100,000 from local banks and check-cashing businesses, authorities said Monday.

The investigation began on August 11 of this year, when authorities at a bank in Highland Park said five people had arrived and were attempting to cash bogus payroll checks.

The arrest of those five initiated a wider investigation that led to police eventually catching eleven other people trying to pass bad checks at banks and check-cashing businesses in Middlesex, Somerset, Union and Monmouth counties between June 30 and September 29.

Some of the towns the group hit included Highland Park, Linden, Metuchen, Rahway and Roselle.

The scheme worked by three people who obtained and prepared bogus pay checks, which were distributed to other individuals who cashed them at banks and check-cashing businesses.

Those three were identified as Ralph Jean-Gilles, 33, and Marcanthony Dorcent, 21, both of Roselle, and Machanley Jules, 28, of Rahway.

All three were charged with promoting organized street crime, a first-degree offense that carries between 10 and 20 years in state prison, if convicted.

Shiraan Singleton, 33, of Roselle, was charged with a second-degree count of conspiracy to write and pass bad checks, and a third-degree count of promoting prostitution in an incident unrelated to the check scheme.

Individuals charged with third-degree counts of passing bad checks are: James Wellington Jr., 48, of Mahwah; Marcel Rose Jr., 41, of Linden; Cheyenne Little, 23, of Elizabeth; Natasha Colon, 25, of Roselle, and Sonnel Santiago, 38, Maria Cancel-Martinez, 27, and Indiana Martinez, 30, all of New Brunswick, and Kamila Price, 21, of Belleville, Michigan.

Diana Rodriguez, 25, of New Brunswick was charged with third-degree counts of attempting to pass a bad check, while Derell Roberts, 31, of Elizabeth, Jahtiah Nix, 24, of Ewing, and Tristin Keck, 25, of Roselle each were charged with a fourth-degree count of passing bad checks.