HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — A former Garland County Sheriff’s Department cadet arrested for allegedly impersonating a sheriff’s deputy and later determined to be an illegal alien was put through a background check when he applied to be a cadet at the age of 14 in 2005, Sheriff’s investigator Bill House said Friday.
Wilmar Arnulfo Perez, 20, of 156 Piney Loop, was charged Wednesday with a felony count of criminal impersonation of a law enforcement officer and misdemeanor counts of theft by receiving and possession of a blue light after he allegedly pulled over motorists dressed as a sheriff’s deputy and even issued tickets using a stolen ticket book.
House said Perez wore a black shirt with “SHERIFF” written in white letters, available at any Army/Navy store, and had badges, handcuffs and other items, including a bulletproof vest, that he is believed to have stolen while serving as a cadet before being ejected from the program in 2009.
House said that when he entered the cadet program a background check was conducted through the state computer system and he was found to have a valid Arkansas ID and “nothing else appeared.”
When he was arrested Wednesday, a hold was put on him by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who had determined he was in the country illegally, he said.
“This time, apparently using new technology they have now, when we ran his fingerprints through the FBI database who ran it through ICE, it showed there was a hold on him.”
House stressed the department does mandatory background checks on all employees, including the cadets.
Perez was still being held Friday on $10,000 bond, in addition to the hold, and is set to appear Nov. 1 in Hot Springs District Court. If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison on the felony charge and up to one year in jail on the misdemeanor counts.
House said earlier this week they began hearing about a suspect in a dark green Ford Taurus with red and blue LED lights pulling over motorists in the western part of the county.
He was also armed with what appeared to be a real handgun, but was actually a BB gun, he said.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/74da055d52bd4392ba90ecd3710240c8/AR–Fake-Officer-Perez/
