Oddities

Creative Counterfeit Defense

Now here’s a legal strategy I hadn’t thought of:

As counterfeiting capers go, this one was not particularly noteworthy.

A group of young people got together, made about 227 fake $20 bills, spent them around town and got indicted by a federal grand jury.

But then one of the conspirators’ lawyers raised this routine federal case out of the ordinary with a unique legal argument: The U.S. Secret Service had “illegally seized” his client’s thoughts when he confessed.

That was what attorney Mark A. Sindler had been prepared to argue Friday in U.S. District Court on behalf of his client, Angelo Armenti, 24, of Millvale.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Conway, said in court papers he looked forward to the debate.

But it didn’t happen. Instead of appearing at a suppression hearing, Armenti decided to plead guilty to passing a counterfeit $20 at the Family Dollar in Millvale last year.

Best part: the attorney says he plans to use the same argument if he has a future client with similar circumstances.