The latest defendant in a series of cases involving the sale of counterfeit goods at or near the Plaza shopping center pleaded guilty in Lynchburg Circuit Court Tuesday morning.
Christopher Lamont Miller was fined $3,000 and sentenced to four months in jail with another 2½ years suspended on charges of selling counterfeit DVDs, CDs, shoes and purses.
Miller was charged with selling the items out of the business he owned, DJ’s Urban Music Center, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Chuck Felmlee said in a plea agreement.
During the fall of 2008, law enforcement began receiving complaints that stores in the Plaza were selling counterfeit movies, CDs and clothing apparel and accessories.
For several months that winter, ABC agents posed as customers and purchased music made in violation of copyright laws as well as fake Nike Air Jordan shoes and Baby Phat Jeans.
While in the store, agents noticed pairs of Nike shoes and Coach brand purses. An agent asked the clerk if the items were real and “the store clerk openly admitted that all of the shoes and purses that they were selling were fake.”
Police seized 1,005 music CD-Rs, 56 DVD-Rs, a CD/DVD burner tower, 193 pairs of counterfeit Nike shoes, 22 purses being sold as Coach, Christian Dior, Gucci, Prada, Chanel, and Louis Vuitton purses and $1,828.
Miller was warned in 2006 by Lynchburg police to stop selling counterfeit goods, according to the plea agreement.
Two other men were convicted on similar charges this year.
Kenneth Lamont Pless was sentenced in February to nine months in jail for selling counterfeit shoes and purses out of B&B Nails on Wadsworth Street, near the Plaza.
Eric Wyatt was sentenced in April to 3 months in jail for selling counterfeit CDs, DVDs, and purses out of Nursing Gear, also on Wadsworth Street.
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