A stint in jail was not on the breakfast menu at a local Hardee's restaurant, a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the Cherokee County Clerk of Courts Office contends.

Frankie Adams, a York County man, claims he was arrested by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and placed in a holding cell for nine hours on July 6, 2007, after he was falsely accused by a restaurant clerk of passing a fake $20 bill at a Hardee's on Cherokee Avenue.

Now, Adams is seeking at least $1 million in damages from the sheriff's office and the restaurant. According to the lawsuit, Adams had cashed a check at the First Citizens bank in Sharon on July 5, 2007, and put $60 of the money in his wallet. Early the next day while on his way to work, he claims he stopped at the Cherokee Avenue Hardee's and attempted to pay for his breakfast with a $20 bill he had received from his bank.

The lawsuit claims the clerk took the bill and was gone for a period of time. When Adams made inquiries about what was going on, he allegedly was informed he was not allowed to leave the restaurant and that police had been called because a special pen used to detect counterfeit money had showed his bill was fake. Adams claims he was promptly arrested despite his protests that the money wasn't fake.

Later, after the charge was dismissed by a magistrate and he was released from jail, the lawsuit claims Cherokee County Sheriff's Office officials offered to take him to his employer and explain what happened so he wouldn't lose his job. Adams' lawsuit claims he subsequently purchased a box of the counterfeit bill detecting pens and the box stated the pens did not work on bills printed with series 1959 and earlier. The bill he presented at the restaurant was printed in the 1950s, according to the lawsuit.

Adams is seeking damages for emotional distress, false imprisonment, slander, assault, battery, invasion of privacy due to the body searches he endured and negligence. Named as defendants are the Sheriff's Office, CKE Restaurants Inc., which operates the Hardee's restaurant on Cherokee Avenue, CKE Holdings LLC., and the clerk who called police.