Fake Cop’s Work Prompts 17 Civil Rights Suits Against Small Mo. Town

Constitutional Law

Fake Cop’s Work Prompts 17 Civil Rights Suits Against Small Mo. Town

Posted Jun 24, 2008, 04:09 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

Updated: In a small Missouri town, a bizarre case is still unraveling: A fake undercover cop conducted raids and made arrests for weeks, with the help of local police, before being unmasked.

Now at least 17 federal civil rights suits have been filed over the debacle, according to the Associated Press.

The claimed culprit was Bill Jakob, an unemployed truck driver with a gun, a badge and a fully equipped Ford Crown Victoria. He apparently was taken at face value by officials in the village of 1,200 southwest of St. Louis when he reportedly told them he was a federal undercover agent.

"I asked him for a search warrant. But after 9/11, I thought maybe they had changed the law," Karen Couch, 60, tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Her home was reportedly raided during a Jakob-initiated search for her grandson.

"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," attorney Dan Briegel tells AP. He represents a woman who was allegedly hospitalized for a week in a psychiatric ward after she failed to cooperate with an "arrest."

Additional coverage:

New York Times: "Missouri Town Finds Drug Agent Is Really an Impostor"

Updated at 5:30 p.m., June 30, 2008, to include link to subsequent New York Times story.

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