interesting story....Peculiar deception rattles small town

[almaty 19]

Peculiar deception rattles small town

By Todd C. Frankel

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

05/15/2008

Gerald — The manager over at Wally's Hardware knew something unusual — yet again — was going down when he got the call Monday to change the locks at City Hall.

Steve Mills was not entirely surprised. The last several months had been discomforting ones for this town of 1,200 residents in Franklin County. Police chiefs kept coming, then going. The town's only pharmacist was arrested last week in a methamphetamine bust. And the town dogcatcher was fired earlier this year for shooting and killing cats.

Now someone else needed to be kept out of City Hall.

But the reason was the most peculiar yet: A man thought to be a federal drug agent, who had spent months alongside police kicking down doors and making arrests, turned out not to be an agent of any stripe. He duped officials for months, pretending to be on loan from the Drug Enforcement Agency. As his story recently unraveled and the fallout began, the police chief and two officers were fired from the five-member department.

So the locks at City Hall needed to be changed.

"Gerald is a good town, a good community," Mills said Wednesday as he worked at the hardware store. "But it does feel like there's been a lot of commotion or upheaval lately."

Investigators were still trying to sort fact from fiction in the story of the fake DEA agent. They know this much, or think they do: He is a 36-year-old man from Washington, Mo. He is married. He never was a federal agent. He was arrested and released Monday. No charges had been filed, so the Post-Dispatch is not using his name. The Franklin County Sheriff's Department, Missouri Highway Patrol and FBI are investigating.

The fake agent seemed to know the ins and outs of law enforcement, according to investigators and those who worked with him.

He drove a cream-colored Ford Crown Victoria with a siren bar and police radio. He was known for wearing a black T-shirt with "Police" emblazoned across the chest and dark tactical pants with pockets down the sides. He carried a gun in a side holster. He had a federal ID card and an official-looking badge. He was sturdily built and clean-cut.

"He was everything that you'd think a federal office would be," Mayor Otis Schulte said.

About three months ago, the fake agent just showed up at the police station, housed inside the blond-brick city hall, Schulte said. The newcomer said he was a DEA agent and part of a regional drug task force. The DEA was footing his bill, he explained, and when he left, he would leave behind his cruiser.

It was an appealing offer for the small, financially strapped department in a region with a reputation as one of the meth-lab capitals of the nation.

He even provided a phone number for Gerald officials to verify everything, Schulte said. The number was answered by a message for something called the "multi-jurisdictional task force." One time a woman answered saying the same thing, promising to pass along the message, Schulte said.

"We trusted him," said Sarah Wheeler, the city clerk. "He came across as an actual federal agent, a good guy."

The ruse might have lasted longer except the fake agent's rough ways led to calls to a local weekly newspaper, the Gasconade County Republican. Reporter Linda Trest heard from people who claimed a brash, new DEA agent was kicking down doors without search warrants.

The agent even took part in the arrest of Gerald's pharmacist. Trest recalled running into the agent outside the pharmacist's house, next door to her own.

Trest was doubtful at first — she knew that people wrapped up in drug raids rarely make reliable sources. But she kept digging. Last month, she called Franklin County Sheriff Gary Toelke and asked him if he had heard about this DEA agent loaned to Gerald police. Toelke started poking around and discovered they had a rogue officer or agent or whoever he said he was.

"This was a mess," Toelke said.

Trest, whose story hit doorsteps Wednesday, suspected officials were fooled by the fake agent's "razzle-dazzle."

The impostor seems to have claimed at different times to be an Iraq War veteran, a retired Air Force chaplain and a father of two. He may have worked briefly at the Treasury Department in St. Louis. He claimed to have worked for police departments in Kinloch, East St. Louis and Sauget. But investigators were doubtful about what to believe.

Residents point to the good things here: a beautiful city park with two baseball fields and a lake, a library staffed by volunteers and filled with donated books, a good mixture of light-industrial jobs and commuters who travel to jobs at Chrysler and Boeing in the St. Louis area.

Last Friday, county investigators seized the fake badge from the fake agent. He was arrested Monday. On Tuesday, the mayor and town officials fired the police chief and two officers because of their roles in the drug raids that are now seemingly tainted.

Authorities worry about the effect on pending criminal cases, since the fake agent joined in on several drug arrests and raids. In late April, police in Gerald made a series of arrests that netted a small amount of methamphetamine and about five pounds of marijuana.

Schulte said he did not want to fire the officers. He felt the police were just hitting their stride, after a revolving door of police chiefs, and were cracking down on the drug trade. But the potential legal liability was too much, he said.

"Our hands are tied," Schulte said, sounding dismayed at the recent run of events. "This guy just really screwed this town up. Things were going really, really good."

[Carlawarla 1]

Anytime I read these bizarre stories about law enforcement...ie police chiefs, particularly in small towns...I sigh and say..." only in Missouri!".

[Ban Hammer 13,344]

Anytime I read these bizarre stories about law enforcement...ie police chiefs, particularly in small towns...I sigh and say..." only in Missouri!".

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Police chiefs kept coming, then going. The town's only pharmacist was arrested last week in a methamphetamine bust. And the town dogcatcher was fired earlier this year for shooting and killing cats.

That towns got some real issues...especially for it's size. Holy cow.

[Niels Bohr 72]

This guy probably didn't make the cut as a DEA agent. So, he took the system to his own hands and tricked everyone. From the article, they didn't say he did anything wrong other than faking.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

This guy probably didn't make the cut as a DEA agent. So, he took the system to his own hands and tricked everyone. From the article, they didn't say he did anything wrong other than faking.

Warrant less entry?

[Carlawarla 1]

Anytime I read these bizarre stories about law enforcement...ie police chiefs, particularly in small towns...I sigh and say..." only in Missouri!".

Yes charles it's true...you should read the Post-Dispatch sometime. Geesh! Look up St. George sometime...police force ensnarled in corruption...has all of 600 residents.

[Ban Hammer 13,344]

Anytime I read these bizarre stories about law enforcement...ie police chiefs, particularly in small towns...I sigh and say..." only in Missouri!".

Yes charles it's true...you should read the Post-Dispatch sometime. Geesh! Look up St. George sometime...police force ensnarled in corruption...has all of 600 residents.

i live next to missouri......i hear all kinds of good stories, hence my reply in this thread

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=127531

[Teacher Mark 53]

Obviously the guys a drug addict! What a scam! All the meth he can snort/toke/shoot/drink?/whatever they do with it!