Thread: California bounty hunter charged with impersonating US agent

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/ ... Hunter.php


California bounty hunter charged with impersonating US agent to arrest fugitives

The Associated Press
Monday, December 18, 2006
SACRAMENTO
A bounty hunter charged with impersonating federal agents says he was only doing the government's work — arresting fugitives wanted for immigration violations.

Federal agents say Jeremy Christian Brickner went too far, identifying himself as a U.S. immigration agent when he captured three people earlier this year.

Brickner, 30, is charged with falsely identifying himself while detaining one immigrant overnight Oct. 23 and while holding a mother and her 10-year-old daughter on May 11. He is charged with carrying a gun, handcuffs, a badge and business cards identifying him as a "deportation agent."

Brickner now faces up to six years in prison. He served a week in jail before he was released Friday after pleading not guilty and posting a $100,000 (€76,365) bond, the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco said Monday.

"All bounty hunters push the limits and break the rules — that's how you get the job done," Brickner said Monday in a telephone interview.

He operates a business called ICE Warrant Detail from his Sacramento home, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by Derek Ohlander, a senior special agent with the federal office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement — or ICE — in San Francisco.

On Monday, he described himself as a bounty hunter who has worked cooperatively with federal immigration authorities for three years, turning over 188 fugitives in at least eight U.S. states.

"We're serving them up on a silver platter," Brickner said.

He also has been in trouble previously. Twice last year, he pleaded guilty to carrying weapons illegally, according to the affidavit. One time he was carrying a loaded gun, a Taser and a baton while using an illegal red flashing light to pull over a motorist in California. In the other, he tried to check a handgun before boarding a passenger airline at New York's Kennedy Airport.

On both occasions, he flashed identification saying he was a fugitive-recovery agent, the affidavit said.

Brickner is due back in San Francisco federal court Wednesday.


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Copyright © 2006 The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com

Here we go again.....let me guess, the arrestees complained and now he's in trouble. I don't understand this one at all. Apparently he did his job, just used the wrong "handle." ??

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f ... 33ED24.DTL

Sacto man accused of impersonating immigration agent
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

(12-20) 13:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A Sacramento man has been indicted on charges that he pretended to be an immigration agent and detained three people -- including a mother and her 10-year-old daughter -- overnight in hotel rooms before turning them over to real agents, authorities said today.

Jeremy Christian Brickner, 30, will appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Jan. 10 on two counts of impersonating a federal agent, specifically one with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

On May 11, Brickner falsely arrested a woman and her 10-year-old daughter, identified in the indictment only as K.T. and O.T., and on Oct. 22 he falsely arrested another person, identified as S.K., authorities said.

Brickner told all three victims that they were subject to arrest pursuant to immigration bonds, prosecutors said. He held them in hotel rooms overnight before turning them over to real immigration agents, authorities said.

During one of the false arrests, Brickner carried business cards that read "U.S. Immigration and Deportation, Deportation Agent" and carried a handgun, handcuffs and a badge shaped like a star, federal prosecutors said.

"Impersonating a federal officer is a crime that will not be tolerated," Kelly Corsetti, agent in charge of the immigration agency's Office of Professional Responsibility in San Francisco, said in a statement. "We will continue to use all of our investigative authorities to ensure the integrity of our workforce and protect the reputation of our dedicated federal law enforcement officers."

Brickner was arrested Dec. 8 and was released a week later on $100,000 bond. U.S. Magistrate Bernard Zimmerman ordered him not to act as a bounty hunter, authorities said.

Perhaps that is just what we need. A few thousand federally authorized bounty hunters. No immigration hearing, no posting bail, just pick them up and shove them across the border.