FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:   April 17, 2002

Detroit, Michigan. Detectives from the Michigan State Police Gaming Section have identified and arrested two out-of-state subjects in separate incidents for passing stolen checks with fraudulent identification at the MGM Grand and Motor City casinos.

Due to a large number of bad checks being passed at all three Detroit casinos, members of the Michigan State Police Gaming Section, along with casino personnel, were monitoring transactions involving individuals from out of state, particularly Indiana and Illinois.

In the first incident on April 14, 2002, MGM Grand Casino alerted the State Police that a subject, later identified as Mary Gray, age 62, was attempting to leave the casino after trying to cash a possible stolen check made out for $2000. Officers from the Gaming Section detained and questioned the individual and determined she was in possession of a checkbook that was stolen in Chicago. She was also in possession of fraudulent Texas identification with the victim’s name but the suspect’s photograph.

In a second incident, also on April 14, 2002, members of the Gaming Section were investigating the cashing of checks from three different states by the same individual. MGM Grand Casino contacted State Police and advised that they had a suspicious individual attempting to cash a possible stolen check. Members of the Gaming Section detained and interviewed this subject, identified as Xan Parker, age 36. Parker was being sought for passing several out-of-state checks earlier in the day. Parker had cashed or attempted to cash a total of $7000 from accounts believed to belong to three different subjects from Wisconsin, Georgia, and Illinois. To appear authentic she possessed three separate pieces of identification created with the actual names of the victims, but with her picture.

It is unknown at this time if either of these two subjects are affiliated with any of the five subjects arrested on Saturday, April 6, 2002, belonging to a check fraud team out of Chicago. In that case over $8000 in fraudulent checks were passed at MGM Grand and Motor City casinos in two days.

Xan Parker will be charged with three counts of Uttering and Publishing and one count of Conspiracy to Commit Uttering and Publishing.

Mary Gray will be charged with one count of Uttering and Publishing and one count of Conspiracy. Both Uttering and Publishing and Conspiracy are felonies carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in a state prison.

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