Two men indicted on check scam FREEHOLD - Two men were indicted on charges related to attempting to cash a fraudulent check at a Middletown bank. Lamar Bethune, of Hamburg, and Napoleon Christian, Newark, were each charged with third-degree conspiracy, third-degree theft by deception, and fourth-degree forgery. On Nov. 2, township police responded to a Commerce Bank branch in Middletown after receiving a report that an individual, later identified as Bethune, was trying to cash a fraudulent check. The teller reportedly recognized the individual who was trying to cash a forged check as the same person who had passed a bad check weeks earlier at a Commerce Bank branch in Aberdeen. When police arrived at the bank, Bethune and Christian were apprehended. A subsequent investigation revealed that the two had been involved in cashing dozens of forged checks at Commerce branches throughout the state. If convicted of either of the third degree charges, each man faces a five-year prison term. On the fourth degree charge, they face an 18-month jail term. Bethune is free on $110,000 bail and Christian is free on $55,000 bail. "Thanks to the efforts of the Middletown Police Department and the cooperation of Commerce Bank, the fraudulent activity that these two individuals were involved in was discovered and brought to an abrupt halt," Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin said.