South Lake man faces charge for false ID manufacture

A South Lake Tahoe man allegedly found with equipment used to manufacture false identities and documents is being held on more than $200,000 bail.

Ray Brashears, 33, was arrested after he was stopped by Douglas County deputies at 9 p.m. Tuesday.

According to the sheriff’s office, Brashears had an active warrant out of Tahoe Township for theft and is on probation with Nevada Parole and Probation.

Douglas K-9 Bak sniffed the vehicle and alerted to five used hypodermic needles and .4 grams of methamphetamine, leading to Brashears’s arrest.

Further search of his vehicle allegedly turned up a wallet, with a Medicaid card, military ID, a Social Security card and a Nevada driver’s license not belonging to Brashears, Sheriff’s Spokeswoman Sgt. Bernadette Smith said.

“Deputies located three cell phones, blank checks, equipment and materials which may have been used in counterfeiting documents and IDs,” she said.

Brashears was arrested on charges of obtaining/using personal identifying information of another person to harm or impersonate them, possession of a financial forgery laboratory, forgery and possession of a hypodermic needle.

In addition to his bail of $211,592 he’s also facing a hold from Nevada Parole and Probation.

Brashears admitted in Douglas County District Court to cashing bad checks to supporting his drug habit in December 2016. He received a suspended 12-32-month prison sentence.

According to police reports, Brashears attempted to cash a check using his roommate’s name at Lakeside Inn and Casino. Lakeside Inn and Casino received the check back from their bank as fraudulent. Bank officials explained they were unable to locate the account the check was drawn from.

The check was written from Sierra-at-Tahoe where the roommate was a former employee and where Brashears also worked. The check appeared to be written with the roommate’s name in the amount of $1,480. The check was cashed on Jan. 8, 2016.

Brashears was arrested in Carson City in April 2016 on suspicion of felony possession of a forgery laboratory, possession of a forged instrument, felony use of identification for unlawful purpose, felony forgery of negotiable instrument, felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of stolen property, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of less than one ounce of marijuana after deputies responded to an unwanted subject at the Carson Street Casino Fandango.