Alleged agent imposter enters not guilty plea in federal Eastern

The man accused of impersonating a federal agent pleaded not guilty in federal court on Monday.

Bill Anthony Jakob, 36, was arraigned before Magistrate Judge Audrey Fleissig in the federal Eastern District of Missouri.

"We have a long and involved process ahead of us," Jakob's attorney, Joel Schwartz, said. "We've got to look and sift through all the charges and see what's really there. Many of them we were anticipating to see, others surprised us, like the mail and wire fraud charges, and we've got to prepare for them."

A federal grand jury charged Jakob with one felony count of wire fraud and one felony count of mail fraud, each carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and fines up to $250,000; two felony counts of false impersonation and 18 felony counts of false impersonation in making arrests and residential searches, each carrying a maximum penalty of three years in prison and fines up to $250,000; and one felony count of making false statements to the FBI, which carries a maximum of five years in prison and fines up to $250,000.

U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway announced the 23-count indictment during a press conference held at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse on Thursday.

The bulk of the indictment involves Jakob's alleged false impersonations of three federal officers. Jakob represented himself an officer and employee of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice Multi-Jurisdictional Narcotics Task Force or as a U.S. Marshal, and participated in multiple arrests and residential searches in the city of Gerald during April 2008, according to the indictment.

Jakob, of Washington, Mo., used a badge he obtained from the Internet, until he received a badge from the Gerald Police Department. None of those arrested on those raids were ever charged, Hanaway said.

It's unclear whether any Gerald police officers knew that Jakob wasn't a federal agent, Hanaway said. But Jakob's defense attorney, Schwartz, of Rosenblum, Schwartz, Rogers, & Glass, has hinted that some knew about Jakob's true identity.

Before Jakob pretended to be a federal agent, he posed as a contracting officer for the U.S. Corps of Engineers while he was employed at the Total Lock & Security Company. The indictment said that Jakob told his employer that he had sold locks to the U.S. Corps of Engineers. To fill the sham contracts Total Lock spent more than $500,000 to purchase specialized locksets from its supplier.

The case will be tried before District Judge Rodney Sippel. Schwartz anticipates that the case will go to trial in the fall.

Donna Walter contributed to this report.

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