Security officer arrested for pretending to be DHS agent www.privateofficer.com
Posted by privateofficernews on June 12, 2008
Security officer arrested for pretending to be DHS agent www.privateofficer.com
Santa Ana CA June 12 2008
Bryan Hill
Ntl. Assoc. Private Officers
http://www.privateofficer.com/
A retail store security guard pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he wielded a gun and pretended to be a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent, prosecutors said.
A retail store security guard pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges he wielded a gun and pretended to be a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent, prosecutors said.
Kevin Javaheri, 48, of Pasadena is accused of carrying the gun in a parking lot in Orange on Feb. 27 – along with a fake badge that identified him as a homeland security agent assigned to “counter terrorism intelligence operations.”
Javaheri also supposedly had business cards on him.
Investigators later found a box of 500 more business cards at his home.
He was arrested after Orange police got a 911 call from a citizen who spotted Javaheri toting the gun. Officers tracked him down to a nearby restaurant on Tustin Avenue, and he said he was a federal agent, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Javaheri – wearing a suit and tie – entered his plea before Superior Court Commissioner Vicki Hix in Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.
He is charged with felony possession of a forged government seal, as well as misdemeanors for pretending to be a peace officer and carrying a loaded firearm in public. If convicted of all charges, he faces four years in prison.His bail was set at $25,000.
He brought a bail bondsman because he intended to immediately bail out.His attorney, Ralph Bencangey, told Hix that his client was licensed to carry firearms.
But police say that license is for his use as a security officer and is not valid when he is off-duty which he was at the time of his arrest.
But police say that license is for his use as a security officer and is not valid when he is off-duty which he was at the time of his arrest.
“We hope eventually down the road it will be show this is an exaggeration and not true,” Bencangey later said of the charges.
Javaheri next appears in court on July 9 for a pre-trial, and July 23 for a preliminary hearing. Authorities say it’s not the first time Javarheri has lied – saying he told Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies the same story when filing a report that his car was stolen September 2007.
He was never charged in that incident. Prosecutor Keith Bogardus said Javaheri was employed at St. Moritz Security Services, but was not working the day he was arrested in Orange County.
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