A Chesterton resident has been sentenced to one year in the Indiana Department of Correction (DOC) after pleading guilty to counterfeiting and attempted theft.

On Jan. 25, Matthew Robert Milletary, 37, with a listed address in the 1600 block of Putter Parkway, was sentenced, on each of the two counts, to three years in the DOC, with two years suspended and to be served on formal probation.

Porter Superior Court Judge Bill Alexa ordered the sentences to run concurrently. He also gave Milletary credit for 105 actual days of time already served in the Porter County Jail.

Milletary was originally charged with a Class C count of forgery, punishable by a term of two to eight years; and with attempted theft, a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years.

Under a plea arrangement with the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the counterfeiting charge was downgraded to a Class D felony.

Milletary was taken into custody on October 2011 in his room at a Merrillville motel, where investigators recovered a laptop computer, a copy machine, and counterfeit $20 bills, Burns Harbor Police said. Milletary subsequently admitted passing counterfeit $20 bills at “numerous locations in and around Chesterton” and that “he started making the fake $20 bills to support his drug habit.”

The investigation began after Milletary’s brother, Kevin Milletary, was taken into custody after he attempted to pass a counterfeit $20 bill at the McDonald’s and the Subway on Melton Road in Burns Harbor, but on each occasion a clerk caught the fake and Milletary ended up paying for his order with a genuine $5 bill, Burns Harbor Police said.

When found, Kevin Milletary was found in possession of 15 $20 bills, which he advised his brother, Matthew Milletary, was making in the Merrillville motel room, Burns Harbor Police said.

Kevin Milletary has also pleaded guilty to counterfeiting and attempted theft.