Friday, September 22, 2006

E-mail this  |  Print page

Louisville pair jailed in Harrison on counterfeiting, drug charges

By Harold J. Adams
hjadams@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

A man and woman from Louisville were arrested at Caesars Casino Hotel on Wednesday and charged with running an elaborate identity theft operation during a stay there of several days.

The arrests of Daniel Redmon, 31, of Winged Foot Drive in Louisville, and Leilani Kauka, 30, of Wallingford Court, came after housekeeping and food-service staff reported suspicious odors and activity in the room the pair shared, Indiana State Police said.

Each was charged with 10 counts of counterfeiting and single counts of possession and dealing in methamphetamine, along with other drug charges.

State police said yesterday the pair used a laptop computer to hack into the computers of their victims and obtain identifying information. The information was then used to make fake Kentucky driver's licenses, which were used to cash fake checks, according to police.

A search warrant turned up the forged items, along with computer equipment, an unspecified "large sum" of cash and over three grams of meth, police said.

Redmon and Kauka had been in a room for several days when housekeeping and food-service personnel at the hotel told an Indiana Gaming Commission agent on Sunday there was an odd odor coming from the room, according to an affidavit by Indiana State Police detective William Wibbels.

The two had refused housekeeping services and rarely left the room, the affidavit said. Redmon and Kauka were moved to another room the following day.

Investigators, alerted again by housekeeping, then found discarded ID cards and checks in the first room along with "lists containing names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth" in the first room, according to Wibbels.

Officers then used a search warrant Wednesday to check the second room and found the other items, Wibbels wrote.

Redmon and Kauka were being held in the Harrison County Jail on $130,000 bond each, pending a formal court hearing.

Reporter Harold Adams can be reached at (812) 949-4028.

Post a Comment This article does not have any comments associated with it

^^  Back to top

E-mail this

Print this

Subscribe

RSS feeds