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GREENSBORO - The ex-wife of a controversial police lieutenant faces charges in a "check kiting" criminal investigation that began last year with the disappearance of money from a regional bank.

Beverly H. Hinson, 46, the former spouse of Greensboro police Lt. James Hinson, was jailed on charges of obtaining property by false pretense. She remained in jail late Monday on $100,000 bond.

Authorities allege Beverly Hinson, who worked as a teller at several Wachovia bank branches, certified a check for $145,000 last month knowing the account from which the money was drawn lacked the funds.

Beverly and James Hinson divorced in 2005. His name has not come up during the investigation, Greensboro police Capt. Gary Hastings said.

"It doesn't have anything to do with him," Hastings said.

Beverly Hinson's alleged actions were announced as police and federal agents dig deeper into a case where at least two people last spring deposited checks in a SunTrust account, immediately retrieved funds and then stopped payment on the original checks.

By the time SunTrust realized the check payments had been stopped, they had already paid out money. Court records indicate that two men facing charges in the alleged scheme had assistance from a SunTrust branch manager.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Service are part of the investigation, records show.

Greensboro attorney T.O. "Pella" Stokes III, 50, was arrested last week in connection with the investigation. Authorities allege he was one of the men who stopped payments on checks to SunTrust.

Terrell Leavette Raynor, 37, is wanted. Raynor, a convicted felon with a history of worthless check and false pretense convictions, was a business partner with Stokes.

Also arrested in the investigation was Tramaine D. Brown, 26, of 808 Oxford St. in Greensboro, who worked for the Postal Service.

Some of the checks to the SunTrust account were from a separate Wachovia account, according to a search warrant of Stokes' bank records. Beverly Hinson's name did not appear in the document.

How she became part of the alleged scheme was still under investigation, Hastings said.

"Things are changing by the moment in this investigation," he said. "It's still early."

James Hinson made news in 2005 when his lawyer accused then-police Chief David Wray of using a small squad to target black officers for unfair internal investigation. The accusation stemmed from Hinson's discovery of a tracking device on his city cruiser.

Beverly Hinson, then living by herself, soon filed her own complaint about the unit when she remembered a van parked outside her town house earlier that spring. Seven months later, on the heels of an internal investigation by the City Attorney's Office and an independent consultant, Wray resigned. City officials publicly cleared Hinson of any wrongdoing one night later.

Contact Eric J.S. Townsend at 373-7008 or etownsend@news-record.com