USA - Fake Cop Busts Residents

[Panthers007]

Fake Cop's Drug Busts Stir Missouri Town
Man With Checkered Past Accused Of Making Several Arrests With Excessive Force

GERALD, Mo., July 2, 2008


Bill Jakob, a man who came to Gerald, Mo., a small town and was called a hero for making numerous drug busts. However he was not the federal agent he said he was.

(CBS/ AP) Imagine the surprise in a small Midwestern town when an officer arrives to help solve a growing crime problem, but turns out to not be who he said he was.

Bill Jakob arrived in Gerald, Mo., a rural community about 70 miles west of St. Louis armed with a self-imposed mission to curb the community's methamphetamine problem.

He had a badge and a gun and told officials he had previously worked as an anti-drug agent in Illinois. He even drove a fully-equipped Ford Crown Victoria, which he said was for undercover work.

Jakob waged his own war on drugs and followed his own rules. Those who he arrested say it was routine for Jakob to use excessive force and kick down doors.

There was just one problem: Jakob was no cop. He was an unemployed truck driver with a criminal record and had recently filed for bankruptcy.

Now this village of 1,200 people is confronting allegations that Jakob and other officers mistreated and robbed many of the people they arrested.

"I never had any intention for any laws to be broken. I purely wanted to help and do the best job that I could," Jakob said in an exclusive interview with CBS' The Early Show Wednesday.

At least 17 people have sued, including an elderly woman who was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward because she didn't cooperate with the police and a man who said Jakob held a gun to his head and threatened to shoot while the man's child watched.

"Not only did they break in and threaten to kill people and violate their civil rights, they stole money, prescription drugs and legally owned weapons. It's crazy that this could happen in 2008," said attorney Dan Briegel, who represents the woman who was placed in the psychiatric ward for a week.

Complaints about Jakob's rough treatment of suspects led a reporter from the Gasconade County Republican newspaper to ask the sheriff about the new officer. That's when Jakob's story unraveled.

Jakob claimed he had been a federal agent attached to an anti-drug task force in an Illinois town. But the community he named dissolved a decade ago. And it turned out that Jakob bought the police vehicle from a used car dealer.

"He had credentials. He had a badge. He had a phone number to call for verification," said Gerald Mayor Otis Schulte. "I don't know what else we could have done."

When police called the number Jakob provided, the woman who answered verified he had worked for the task force. The mayor and other authorities now suspect the person at the other end of the phone was Jakob's wife.

Jakob, 36, was arrested in mid-May but has not yet been charged with a crime. His attorney expects a federal indictment later this month. Jakob did not respond to a written request for an interview left at his home 30 miles away in Washington, Mo.

His attorney, Joel Schwartz, said his client's involvement in drug raids was the result of Jakob's poor decisions, but also those of Gerald police.

"We are not saying for one moment that Bill Jakob didn't make serious errors in judgment," he said. "I am strongly suggesting the responsibility needs to be shared."

Jakob first showed up in Gerald in February in hopes of speaking about a job with then-police Chief Ryan McCrary, Schwartz said.

When Jakob's deception came to light, agents from the FBI and the Missouri Highway Patrol descended on Gerald's tiny City Hall. Because he was never a police officer, all the arrests he made without warrants were illegal.

The city fired McCrary - who had sought reserve deputy status for Jakob - along with two other officers in the five-officer department. A sheriff's deputy who accompanied Jakob on two trips to pick up extradited inmates was also dismissed.

A cursory check of public records would have revealed that the mysterious lawman had a checkered past.

In 1994, at age 22, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sex abuse in St. Clair County, Ill., and paid a $100 fine for having sex with an underage girl.

In 2003, Jakob and his wife filed for bankruptcy, listing debts in excess of $180,000. And in 2007, a jury found Jakob liable for $600,000 in damages in the death of a 6-year-old boy who ran onto a rural highway and was hit by Jakob's pickup truck.

The verdict was overturned on appeal. Jakob and the child's mother have since tentatively agreed to a $50,000 insurance settlement.

Seventeen people who were either arrested by Jakob or whose homes were raided by him came forward to file two separate federal lawsuits alleging civil rights violations and excessive force. Another attorney plans to file a third lawsuit on behalf of at least 12 other town residents.

Both lawsuits name the mayor as a defendant. The suit brought by Briegel, who is seeking $11 million for each of his 11 clients, also names the town's four aldermen.

A petition seeking to oust Schulte as mayor is also being circulated.

"The town is angry," the mayor said.

The mayor compared his town's predicament - and Jakob's deception - to the story of con artist Frank Abagnale Jr., who in the 1960s impersonated a police officer, lawyer and airline pilot. His story was portrayed in the 2002 movie "Catch Me if You Can."

"He was very adamant about not telling anyone anything," Schulte said. "He said, 'I'm here. I'm undercover.' That's it."

The mayor hopes Jakob's case will be a cautionary tale to other communities.

"There's one good thing to come out of it," he said. "Every small town that hears about it is going to be more careful now."

[enquirewithin]

What a bizarre lunatic! Some one who really should be in one the US's overcrowded prisons.

[fnord]

Yall might think im crazy but i love this guy! I mean i feel bad for the horrible experiances these people went trew but think about what he has just done to the image of police officers across the country! Anyone that reads this
will now see the police for what some of them really are ~bumbleing incompetnet violent fools.

Seventeen people who were either arrested by Jakob or whose homes were raided by him came forward to file two separate federal lawsuits alleging civil rights violations and excessive force. Another attorney plans to file a third lawsuit on behalf of at least 12 other town residents.

When Jakob's deception came to light, agents from the FBI and the Missouri Highway Patrol descended on Gerald's tiny City Hall. Because he was never a police officer, all the arrests he made without warrants were illegal.

Holy shit.... I bet theres going to be one hell of a party in that town when all those guys get let out! Combine that with overthrowing the mayor and a bunch of aledge drug users with a bunch of lawsuit money and you have one kick ass town/territory waiting to happen!

Reputation Comments on this post:

true and awesome

[Lobsang]

That is interesting. You know I once worked in a large office owned by a bright doctor. He was brilliant and made tons of money. But the thing is he had some strange fetiiiiish for police work. He use to fabricate stories about being a cop. he bacame a police doctor to get a badge and lied about himself being a cop.

He would buy all kinds of police stuff like bullett proof vests and anti terrorost equiptment. Well eventually he closed the practice and retired. But instead of going to Florida or something he decised to take the cop thing to the limit. He purchased a Crown Victoria and had it set up with sirens, lights, scanners, antennas and the like. The trunk was full of police stuff like vests and stuff. He then would cruise the New Jersey Turnpike and other roads as a police vehicle.

He would pull people over and give them a stiff warning. He would aslo go to fires and other police situations and act like a concerned cop wanting to help from out of town. I never understood the obsession. The guy was otherwise totally stable. Just this weird mental obsession. Well he finally got caught and the police are Mad as Hell. A cop pulled him over and asked him point blank if he was a cop. He said YES. Then the shit hit the fan. I do not know if he has gone to jail or gotton out of it or if it is still awaiting trial. It is very strange.