Ex-cop trying to skirt ticket impersonated federal agent in NC — badge and all, feds say
A 58-year-old man accused of speeding in a 1965 convertible on a North Carolina highway told the police officer who pulled him over that he was a federal agent “on the job,” prosecutors said.
“In this car?” the cop replied, according to body camera footage cited in court filings.
Following multiple conversations about the veracity of his claims, Allen David Reinemund, of Holly Springs, was arrested and charged with impersonating an officer. On Friday, prosecutors said, he was sentenced to a year of probation and ordered to pay a $500 fine.
“Playing cops and robbers is a game best left to kids, because impersonating a special agent is a serious crime that has even more serious consequences,” Special Agent in Charge Ronnie Martinez said in a news release announcing the sentence.
Martinez oversees Homeland Security Investigations in North Carolina — the same agency for which Reinemund claimed to work.
A subsequent investigation into Reinemund’s past showed he was a former police officer. But public records indicated he was fired after less than six months on the job for “untruthful statements.” Reinemund was charged in a criminal complaint in October and pleaded guilty to one count of impersonating an officer in February, court filings show.
A defense attorney representing him did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment on Monday.
According to an affidavit accompanying the complaint, Reinemund was pulled over by a trooper with the State Highway Patrol on March 9, 2020, just before 3 p.m. He was driving a 1965 Shelby Cobra convertible and going 80 mph in a 50 mph zone on U.S. Highway 401 in Fuquay-Varina.
The trooper’s body camera captured their exchange.
In the footage reviewed by investigators, Reinemund told the trooper he was “on the job” with HSI, according to the affidavit. When the trooper questioned whether he was on duty while driving the classic car, Reinemund back-tracked and said he was not.
The trooper checked his license and asked for some identification that showed Reinemund worked for HSI. At that point, court filings state, Reinemund handed him a badge.
As the conversation continued, Reinemund claimed to have worked in law enforcement in New Jersey and Arizona before joining the Department of Homeland Security. The trooper again asked for his credentials — an ID, phone number or the name of a supervisor to call.
“I have had people impersonate,” the trooper said in the body camera footage, according to court filings. “That is why I am trying to figure it out right now.”
Switching gears, Reinemund then told him he was a contractor for HSI.
“No, I know exactly what I told you. And, I don’t deny it,” he said in reference to his claims of working for HSI. “I mean, I should have phrased it a little differently as a contractor.”
The trooper subsequently accused him of lying and Reinemund was arrested. He repeated his claims of once working in law enforcement once he was taken to the Wake County Detention Center, prosecutors said.
“I wanted to get out of a ticket, but I haven’t had a ticket, I am 58 years old and I haven’t had a ticket my entire life,” he reportedly said during the exchange.
Six months later, prosecutors said, Reinemund sent a picture to the Wake County District Attorney’s Office showing a ballistic vest, a Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent badge and a hat with the agency’s name on it in an attempt to get the charges dropped.
The photograph prompted Homeland Security to investigate and a search warrant was carried out at Reinemund’s house. Prosecutors said investigators confiscated a badge, ballistic vest and other law enforcement gear during the search.
An HSI agent assigned to the case also said in the affidavit that he had never heard of Reinemund and cross-checked his name with the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, which also had no record of his employment.
The agent said he then searched Reinemund on the internet and discovered he had been “Brady” listed, meaning his name was in a police database flagging him for “credibility issues.” The Phoenix Police Department later confirmed Reinemund had worked as an officer from July 2002 to December 2002 but was terminated for “Oral and Untruthful Statements.”
A news article from 2003 also showed Reinemund was previously arrested on charges he impersonated a cop after he got pulled over for erratic driving, the agent said.
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Ex-cop trying to skirt ticket impersonated federal agent in NC — badge and all, feds say."
