More than 20 people were jailed following a bad check roundup Thursday on charges from passing the bad checks and failure to appear, to grand jury indictments.

Worthless Check Unit Coordinator Angie Cotton said the day’s events allowed the district attorney’s office “to make good on a promise” made to local residents passing bad checks at area merchants.

“For the past few weeks, we have been telling people that we were going to have a round-up to arrest people with outstanding check warrants,” Cotton said. “We did, and we will continue to have them much more frequently until people get the message.”

DA Investigator Max Smith, who organized and led the round up, said nearly every law enforcement agency in the county assisted in bringing the 21 arrested to justice.

“I can’t say enough about all the officers who came out to help us,” Smith said. “They stayed steady all day long and tracked down so many leads for us. I hope they know just how much I appreciate them and the job they did yesterday.”

The arrests stemmed from the issuance of felony warrants for negotiating bad checks and grand jury indictments to municipal warrants for failure to appear and failure to pay.

Arrested in the round-up for negotiating a worthless instrument were:

• Heather Waugh, for one count;

• Antonio Evans Jr., for four counts;

• Terry Carnley, for three counts;

• Bobby Golloher, for one count;

• Chasity Waite, for two counts;

• Christina Fuller, for five counts;

• Crystal Rollins, for two counts;

• Pamela Hamilton, for two counts; and,

• Patricia Day, for one count.

Arrested on grand jury indictments were:

• Mona Lisa Wambles;

• Michael Huber;

• Olajuwon Hines;

Arrested on municipal failure to appear warrants from Andalusia were:

• Heather Piatt;

• Tommy Calloway;

• Melanie Bell;

• Kimberly Ainsworth;

• Angela Bryan;

• Tracy Lane; and

• Jamarcus Stoudemire.

Also arrested were Jessica Tolbert on a municipal warrant in Andalusia for harassment and Mary Webb for violation of probation.

Officers from the Andalusia Police Department, Opp Police Department, Florala Police Department, Covington County Drug Task Force, Alabama Probation and Parole Board, and District 8 Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control Board assisted District Attorney’s Office investigators during the round up.

District Attorney Walt Merrell also issued a warning to those who have yet to realize the severity of writing a bad check.

“Apparently some people think that we are kidding when we say we’re serious about check writers,” he said. “Some of the people we looked for Thursday have written dozens of bad checks and have bilked merchants for thousands upon thousands of dollars. We won’t stop until we find them and get these people’s hard earned money back.”

For a list of arrestees’ bond amounts, see “For the Record” found on Page 6.