Unjust Arrest for a Just Cause

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Date of Interaction: November 13, 2013

Police Employees Involved: Chief Kevin McKeon, Sgt. William Moyer, Cpl. Robert Jones,Ofc. Michael Salvo – New Hanover Township Police Department, PA. Detective John Fallon – Montgomery County Detective Bureau Norristown, PA, Constable Joshua Stouch, State Police Fire Marshal Cpl. David Egleston

Police Employee Contact Information: New Hanover Twp Police Department (610)327-1150 or 610)327-1441 or (215)679-4131, Montgomery County Detective Bureau 610-278-3368, State Constable (570) 580 – 0799, State Police Troop K Skippack Barracks (215) 560-6211

I am the President and Director of Operations and Certified Investigator of a PA non-profit organization called Cyber Crime Response Agency (CCRA). Our mission is to assist law enforcement with the apprehension of internet criminals by conducting cyber investigations and educating the public in cyber safety and awareness.

July 2012 CCRA was contacted by a client stating that his iPhone was stolen. This isn’t something that CCRA regularly investigates, but at this time we decided to test our ability of recovering stolen devices. We were provided with minimum details and names to go off of. I attempted to contact the possible suspects and witnesses, but just got hang ups. Then I contacted the victim back and had him sign a consent form to access his Account Information from Sprint. I contacted Sprint’s Electronic Surveillance Team and spoke to a rep. I explained to the rep that I am a Cyber Investigator and NOT law enforcement, that we simply assist law enforcement. The rep faxed me an exigent circumstances form and told me to complete it as is and do not alter or change the form. CCRA deals with these forms a lot and it was unusual that we were instructed to not alter the form, usually we cross out any law enforcement wording and write in Cyber Investigator or Agency. I followed the instructions of the Sprint rep, placed my name where it said Law Enforcement Agent and placed the agency name where it said Law Enforcement Agency and signed the form. At that point I was given access to Account Information, historical call data and GPS location of the device. Having a GPS location we would be able to locate the device however, every time I called for a GPS trace, the phone was turned off.

During the course of this investigation, the information obtained by Sprint was NOT used to recover the device. I went back, questioned the suspects and witnesses and tracked the phone down to an individual three towns away. After making contact with the subject, it was discovered that he purchased the device from another person, not knowing it was stolen. The subject agreed to meet in a shopping mall parking lot, where the device was handed over to me and returned directly to the victim. The whole investigation from start to return of stolen device only took eightteen hours. Speaking with the subject, he was a high school senior, honor student, had a few colleges lined up with scholarships, and I knew that if I contacted the Police, he would be charged with possession of stolen property. I believe in second chances and it is up to the discretion of the investigator to notify and forward the case to law enforcement, depending on the severity and repeat nature of the case. The victim decided to not press charges. Sprint was notified to unlock the device and restore service as the device has been successfully recovered.

In 2013, I was responding as a volunteer rescue fire fighter with Pottstown Fire Department to a multi-vehicle accident with injuries in Gilbertsville, PA when during my response I was pulled over by Sergeant William Moyer with the New Hanover Police Department; he is also the Deputy Fire Chief and Treasure for the New Hanover Fire Department. He stated that my emergency light bar flashing blue lights, take-down strobes, ally strobes and a traffic advisor for safety was illegal. I explained to him where I was responding and showed him my pager as proof with the call still active on it. Moyer stated that all units were recalled from the scene and I should go home, only after he cited me. I pled not guilty to the citation and went to court. I attempted to contact my fire chief multiple times without success.

Before going to court, my fire chief called me back for a meeting at the station. He explained to me that he knew Sgt. Moyer for years personally and professionally and that after talking with Sgt. Moyer, he decided that he wanted to “make an example out of me.” At that point, my chief provided me with an official letter of suspension and wished me luck. Court came around and present were myself, my attorney, Sgt. Moyer, PA State Police Fire Marshal Cpl. David Egleston and my fire chief. Sgt. Moyer motioned to change the charge from improper flashing blue lights to unauthorized use of blue lights. Moyer stated that he ran a search of the state police database for registration of my emergency lights and none was present. A year and a half prior to this incident, I emailed my chief with all the details needed to register my emergency lights. I never received a response from him and assumed he was taking care of it as he was on scene with me multiple times with my blue lights. I did not have access to the old email address that held a copy of that email and I was found guilty.

Directly after court, Cpl Egleston pulled me aside and gave me his business card; he said I needed to send him an email to set up a meeting for him to inspect my vehicle at the barracks. I emailed him, and in my email at the end it had my signature which stated the CCRA information, my position, cyber investigator and contact details. After inspecting my vehicle seeing that lights were removed, he started asking around about CCRA. No one heard of the agency before, so he contacted someone at the State Corporation Bureau that stated after a cursory check of the website, we might be in violation of some charitable rights acts. Cpl Egleston then forwarded the information to Detective John Fallon, Arson Investigator with the Montgomery County Detective Bureau. Fallon took the case and submitted for a search warrant of my property. The local Judge Saylor approved of the warrant and it was executed.

NHPD and MCDB both jointly executed this warrant armed, with the purpose of collecting business records and financial records of CCRA in electronic and paper form. During execution of the search warrant, they took legally registered firearms, survival kits, jackets and other material unrelated to the search warrant. They then proceeded on to question me, asking if I had any plans to kill the president, hurt the officers, or if I was forming a militia. I answered no to all the questions with disgust, as I was offended by their tone and reasons behind the questions. While in my Army uniform, someone took pictures of myself holding an M4 and they stated I was labelled under the patriot act as a possible domestic terrorist, due to those pictures.

After my attorney spoke to the Judge, the weapons were returned as they were legally registered, but illegally seized. I am an Armed Security Officer Licensed ACT 235 in PA. They also stated that because I had my kevlar vest inside of my Dodge Charger Gold color vehicle, I was attempting to impersonate a police officer. There are no weapon related charges or crimes committed, yet I am still under the patriot act and have firearm related bail conditions.

Once this hit the news, a local newspaper wrote a detective-and-DA-guided article against me without full truthful details. My attorney stated now isn’t the time to dispute the news however. I lost my job because of it and was unemployed for about three months. This case is currently going to trial for signing one document under direction of Sprint.

I simply was doing my job by helping to have our client’s $500.00 device returned to him. All of our services are free of charge, we just enjoy helping and assisting the internet community, making it a safer place for everyone. Because of these false charges, CCRA has lost partnerships, volunteers, reputation and its financial standing. After speaking with multiple different people, they believe there may be corruption within NHPD and that I was getting too close and they got scared. Another possibility was that citizens started coming to CCRA, because we offered second chances when cops would just make arrests and get paid. By doing so, NHPD was losing money since they were citing, arresting and investigating. Another individual versed in law even stated, if there was more crime in New Hanover, this whole thing would of been overlooked. The only way they found this document was through the search warrant. All the wasted taxpayer dollars and police resources investigating a signature on a piece of paper.

There never was and never will be any criminal intent to unlawfully obtain information for anyone’s gain within the Cyber Crime Response Agency, and there was no criminal intent to this whole case, just someone trying to stand up and do the right thing.

Unjust Arrest for a Just Cause is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights