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impersonation of a US Marshal

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bmaebell

Member
What is the name of your state? we live in GA, but the offender called from Colorado


My fiance is having a seriously tough time with his ex-wife right now, and she's not adverse to causing all sorts of problems for us. Such as this...

A gentleman called my fiance at 11:49pm last Thursday night, claiming he worked for the US Marshals. He was trying to convince and intimidate my fiance into removing some pictures from a site on the internet. The conversation lasted about 10 minutes, and at the end of it, my fiance asked this gentleman for his name and contact info. The guy said his name was "Patrick." When asked for a last name, he replied, "Let's just stick with Patrick."

We had his number from the call, so we did a reverse phone number look-up to see who this supposed US Marshal really was. We were able to obtain his first and last name (his first name is indeed "Patrick"), and his address in Colorado. We also found out that he called from his personal cell phone.

My fiance had serious doubts that this man was indeed a Marshal (he called from his personal number very late at night, he wouldn't give his last name, and he didn't sound terribly professional), as did his father, who was with us at the time of the call. His father took it upon himself to call this gentleman back and ask him a few questions. The guy not only admitted that he was NOT a US Marshal (he said he had some friends that were friends of some guys who were Marshals!) but he also admitted that he was calling on behalf of my fiance's ex. He said they chat online, and she prompted him to do the calling - but he obtained my fiance's number from a site on the internet.

Is this man committing a crime? Is his impersonation of a Federal Officer actually punishable by law? He did not try to obtain any money or services from my fiance. He just stated that he was a US Marshal, and he tried to convince my fiance to agree to remove some pictures.
 


FlyingRon

Senior Member
Don't know about federal law, but check the local statutes on both ends of the phone call. Many states have rules against people impersonating any sort of public official (be it federal or local) in order to coerce people to take some action. It's also a violation of many states laws to falsify your identity during telephone calls in order to harass people.

I'm too busy to look it up right now but you can find the statues with google if you try.
 

bmaebell

Member
Well, I'm not terribly good at deciphering the law-speak, but here's what I've found so far...

Colorado Law:
http://www2.michie.com/colorado/lpext.dll/Infobase4/2abee/2d52b?f=templates&fn=fs-main-doc.htm&q=impersonation&x=Advanced&2.0#LPHit1
Under § 18-5-113, 1(e), which is a class 6 felony

Georgia Law:
http://w3.lexis-nexis.com/hottopics/gacode/
Under § 16-10-23, punishable by $1000 fine and/or 1-5 years jail sentence


My fiance called the US Marshals today to tell them the story and see what he/they can do. They transferred him to their investigations department. He spoke to a lady there, but she said that her dept only investigates internal matters, and she recommended that he contact our local police department. She also mentioned that, if anything else, this would be beneficial to document with a police report. At least there will be proof that the ex-wife coerced someone to lie to my fiance to intimidate him. That certainly won't look good for her.

I find it a little strange that the Marshals only have an investigations dept for internal affairs, and not one that deals with external ones - like the situation we have now.
 

jeffschwann007

Junior Member
RE: impersonation of US Marshal-contact FBI!

I have a friend who has been a US Marshal and is now an FBI agent.
Impersonation of any federal law enforcement official is a federal crime and is normally handled by the Dept. of Justice (e.g. FBI) or US Attorney. In some states it may also be a STATE criminal offense as well. Contacting the local Police is a good start, but my friend suggested reporting this to the FBI as well (do both!). If you don't get anywhere, then contact the US Attorney's office in your area....the feds don't take kindly to that stuff.
The main reason that the US Marshals didn't respond more adequately (by suggesting you contact the FBI etc.) is that it isn't completely inside their jurisdiction (they transfer federal prisoners, capture fugitives, guard federal courthouses etc.) so that is why if a "current" US Marshal was acting improperly...it would be handled by an internal investigation. As this is a citizen (allegedly) impersonating a federal official, the Justice Dept/FBI are the investigative agency in charge of most federal criminal offenses. Best of luck, I hope this helps.
 

bmaebell

Member
Wow that's a lot of really useful information! Thank you! And please, thank your friend for me! :D

I'll keep posting updates as new developments arise.
 

bmaebell

Member
Well this is an interesting development. After telling us yesterday that they didn't handle external affairs, the Marshals called again today. The gentleman (I fully believe this one is indeed a Marshal) introduced himself as such, gave his full name, and asked my fiance about the impersonator. My fiance gave him the whole story, as well as "Patrick's" whole name, phone number, and address. The gentleman said that he would transfer the case to Colorado and they would investigate whether or not "Patrick" was a Marshal (which we know he's not, because my fiance called the Colorodo branch to find out if he was, and they had no one in their employee database by that name). If they discover that he isn't, they're going to locate him at his address and have a discussion with him. At which point, I'm sure he'll be scared as all get out (wouldn't you be, if a few feds showed up at your door?) and he'll probably tell them anything they want to know - which will most likely include ratting out the lying, conceitful, coercing ex.

My fiance asked if he should still run by the local PD to file a report, just so that it's documented here. He said that we could if we wanted to, but that the Marshals in Colorado would do what they can to handle the situation. So we're still gonna do that today. But I don't know if we're going to involve the FBI, since the Marshals are handling things. I wonder what made 'em change their tune?
 

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