PORT ANGELES — A 21-year-old Port Angeles man pled no contest to forgery on Wednesday for his role in a counterfeit operation in March.
Nathan W. Terry accepted a plea offer and entered an Alford plea, in which he maintains innocence while admitting that the evidence would convict him, in Clallam County Superior Court.
A two-day trial had been scheduled to start on Monday.
“I wish to take the state’s offer because the state will present substantial evidence of my guilt at trial,” Terry wrote in a court statement.
Terry faces a standard range of 17 to 22 months in prison with a maximum sentence of five years.
He will be sentenced in Superior Court on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Terry was arrested on March 10 after a clerk at Liquid Fuels, 210 E. First St., realized that a $20 bill Terry was trying to use was fake.
The clerk said that he called the police and Terry fled.
Port Angeles police caught up with him later that day, after Terry had sent a text messaging saying that he dumped $4,000 in fake cash in a trash bin downtown.
Terry was charged with forgery and an unrelated charge of residential burglary. The burglary charge was dropped as part of the plea offer.
Two others, Estene M. Pass, 41, and Michael H. Lyman, 49, were arrested at 1308 E. Front St., No. 16, the location of the counterfeit operation, on March 12.
Officers said they found three firearms, narcotics, marijuana, counterfeit $20 bills and a noncounterfeit $20 bill with the same serial number as the counterfeit bills, at the residence.
Pass, of Port Angeles, is charged with possession of methamphetamine and forgery.
Lyman, also of Port Angeles, is charged with forgery and three felony counts of unlawful possession of a firearm.
As part of the plea offer, Terry agreed to cooperate with the investigation and testify against Lyman and Pass if subpoenaed.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
