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Case Against Fake Officer Upends Small Missouri Town

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The Associated Press

Published: June 29, 2008

GERALD, Mo. - GERALD, Mo. - Bill Jakob arrived in this small town with an offer to help police 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.

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

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

At least 17 people have sued the city, 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 placed in the psychiatric ward for a week.

Uncovering The Deception

No one really knows what motivated Jakob, and his lawyer offered little explanation.

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," Gerald Mayor Otis Schulte said. "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 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 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 and also those of Gerald police.
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.

Police Chief, Officers Fired

The city fired McCrary - who had sought reserve deputy status for Jakob - along with two other officers in the five-officer department.

A petition seeking to oust Schulte as mayor is being circulated. "The town is angry," the mayor said.

A check of public records would have revealed that Jakob 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.

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