Helen Saulnier 
Before this month, a Ga male was arrested and billed with one count of fake personation of an officer or employee of the United States. Robert Earhart Jr. allegedly tried to go himself off as a CIA Agent to the Columbus, Georgia U.S. Attorney’s Office environment previous thirty day period, when he claimed to be with the CIA’s “protective functions division” and asked for a assembly with U.S. Legal professional Peter Leary.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office environment (USAO) for the Middle District of Ga explained Earhart as possessing a heritage of impersonating law enforcement: the announcement of the unsealed criticism against him describes him impersonating a CIA Agent, a Homeland Stability Agent, and, in a circumstance from 2019, a DEA agent. Apparently, in that scenario, Earhart allegedly presented himself as a DEA agent as aspect of a scheme to no cost three inmates from a county jail.
Now, a grand jury has upped the costs towards him to five counts of phony personation and Earhart is heading to trial.
In the criticism, submitted on Feb. 8 and unsealed the future working day pursuing Earhart’s arrest, FBI Agent Joshua Mixon recounted equally the voicemail remaining by Earhart at the USAO and a subsequent simply call exactly where Earhart ongoing to impersonate a federal investigator to an undercover agent. Mixon is a previous officer with the Auburn Police Office in Alabama and is mentioned on the warrant for Earhart’s arrest as the arresting officer.
In his Jan. 11 voicemail to the USAO in Columbus, Mixon stated that Earhart cited a faux badge amount and requested to do some “shadowing” of Leary’s perform.
Then, in conversation with the undercover agent on Feb. 3, Mixon recounted, Earhart claimed that he was investigating a variety of conditions and labored with the Inspector General. He said that he was a victim of identity theft, and that an ex-girlfriend of his experienced taken his paperwork and his badges, so he has to get new types. On the connect with, he equipped a cellular phone amount and electronic mail for his alleged boss.
Earhart allegedly claimed to have the two CIA clearance and top stability clearance.
On the simply call, the undercover agent manufactured options for Earhart to occur to the USAO place of work on Feb. 8. The submitting was to begin with sealed to protect against untimely dissemination online.
A grand jury indictment filed on Wednesday charged Earhart with 5 counts of Untrue Personation of an Officer or Personnel of the United States for falsely declaring to be a special agent with the Department of Homeland Safety in a amount of contexts.
The indictment alleges that Earhart utilized his impersonation to test to get warrants for particular persons arrests from the USAO, to try out to get an investigation opened into his allegedly stolen equipment, firearms, and badge and then to try out and get a badge (and other machines) issued to him and to get a federal government tag for his car.
Last but not least, the indictment alleges, Earhart falsely introduced himself as a unique agent and signed a legal complaint and affidavit looking for the arrest of numerous folks.
Earhart’s earlier is intricate. He was arrested in 2015 and at first billed with the murder of his infant daughter. In the long run, he was convicted of negligent murder in her death.
When Earhart was put on trial for the 2019 county jail incident, his attorney argued that he endured from major mental wellbeing difficulties induced by his daughter’s loss of life and his time in jail. Tim Chitwood at the Ledger-Enquirer has much more on Earhart’s authorized background.
The governing administration has moved for Earhart to be detained as a flight danger throughout the demo.
