Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Ex-Cop Pretends to be Real Officer with Badge, Lights: Sheriff

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

Scott Pearson was pulled over in February in Cook County, Illinois for an expired tag. The officer questioned Pearson when he saw a badge on his wallet and red and blue lights on his SUV. It turned out Pearson was no longer working as a police officer but was equipped with a badge and lights. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the entire interaction caught on body-worn cameras in this epsiode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Go to https://thrivemarket.com/CrimeFix to receive 30% off your first order AND a FREE gift when you join Thrive Market today!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Marie Pereira https://www.instagram.com/themariepereira/Producer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. You are no longer employed by Park Ridge, correct? Correct. Okay. So what's the reason you're showing our officer the badge? An ex-cop pulled over and officers say he tried to act like he was still a cop, badge and all. I have the story out of Illinois and we look at whether it could be a misunderstanding or whether Scott Pearson is in trouble. I'm Anjanette Levy and this is Crime Fix. Before I get into this case, I want to tell you about our new podcast that just dropped on Wondery Plus.

It's Karen the Retrial. And let me tell you, it is the absolute best place for a recap of the Karen Reid case. Everything going on in her retrial that's literally happening right now. And what's to come as the retrial heats up. You can find Karen the Retrial exclusively on the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Click the link in our description below to listen. Now back to this case involving Scott Pearson out of Illinois. He was driving his SUV down the road when he was pulled over in Cook County.

Seems like no big deal, right? But it turned into a big deal. Pearson used to work as a police officer, but he doesn't anymore. stopped you for the expired tags yeah i renewed them and then i got the they spelled the plate wrong it's not stolen because you know the ring was not on its own plate and then i went to renew it again and they said that i had to go get the emissions tested again so okay you're from martinson park ridge park ridge yeah okay all right give me a second okay this was back on february 1st the officer walks back to his cruiser and he runs Pearson's license. It takes a few minutes. It always does. He sits in his cruiser gathering

some information and then he walks back to Pearson's SUV. And that's when things get interesting. Do you have an ID? Homework? Yeah, you know, I don't have one on me. No, no, I work for Park Ridge. I work for Park Ridge. Okay. I'm not with them anymore. Okay, so is there a reason why you're carrying that then? It's just a wand I've always had. I don't use it. Okay, may I say that again? Yeah.

Can I have it? Yeah, go ahead. You can take the badge if you want. Okay. Give me a second, okay? Yeah. Send the vehicle for if you want. Okay. Give me a second, okay? Say anything for me, Scott. So Scott Pearson is driving around with a badge in his wallet, a legitimate police badge, but he's no longer a police officer. The officer goes back to his cruiser and actually calls the Park Ridge Police Department.

The officer confirms that Scott Pearson does not work there and hasn't for a while. I looked up Pearson on an Illinois database and it shows he was hired by the Park Ridge Police Department in 2018. His date of separation was listed as February 29th, 2024, and his status is listed as inactive. So Scott Pearson hadn't been an active law enforcement officer in Illinois for nearly a year when this traffic stop took place. Watch what happened next as the Arlington officer called a Cook County officer to assist him. Do you have anything on you? No, sir. No weapons, nothing we need to know of? No. Okay. Step out. Face right here. Face the one in the front right there.

Put your hands up real quick on the car. 839. Sir, you got nothing on you? No weapons on nothing? No. Give me a second. Put your hands behind your back. Yep.

839. You're just being detained at the moment. So we'll catch you some questions, investigate everything. Um, you are no longer employed by Park Ridge, correct? Correct. Okay. So what's the reason you're showing our officer the badge? I didn't show.

I opened my wall and it's still a little... I know, but when you're... Okay, when you have been terminated from a police department or anything, you're not allowed to carry any police identity, no badge, no nothing, anything at all, because that's pretty much, you're impersonating a police officer, which you are no longer a police officer. Yeah, I didn't stay. That was the problem. But you still have a badge on you, right? And you showed him the badge, and you said you used to work for Park Ridge or Burr Ridge, wherever it was, right? If you remember, I asked you, is that Arlington? And you said, no, that's Park Ridge.

I said, no, I work for Park Ridge. Yeah. Okay. Do you work for any other department at the moment or anything? No. I said I worked. So right there, Pearson is saying he used the past tense, worked. Let's go back and look at what he said to the first officer when he was first approached. Do you have an ID from work? Yeah, I don't have one on me, no. No, I worked for the Park first officer when he was first approached. If you are serious about boosting your energy and improving your overall health, the food you choose is key. But let's get real. Shopping for healthy, sustainable food can be really overwhelming.

That's where Thrive Market comes in. Thrive Market is my go-to for healthy, sustainable groceries. And the best part, it's delivered right to my front door. With Thrive Market, I get access to thousands of high-quality brands with products guaranteed at the lowest price, everything from pantry staples to eco-friendly cleaning supplies. Plus, their commitment to sustainability means I'm not only taking care of myself, but the planet too. And with their easy-to-use website and app, I can filter by dietary preferences, whether you're keto, gluten-free, vegan, or just trying to make healthier swaps. Thrive Market has something for everyone. I found some amazing high-protein snacks like Catalina Crunch Cinnamon Toast Cereal.

It's perfect for my midday cravings. Every product is carefully vetted by Thrive Market's expert team for its quality and ethical sourcing, so I feel good about what I'm putting on my table and into my body. So if you're ready to make healthy food shopping as easy as a few clicks, check out Thrive Market. Scan the QR code on your screen, click the link in the description, or head to thrivemarket.com slash crimefix to get 30% off your first order and a free gift when you join Thrive Market

today. Trust me, you won't regret it. So at first it sounded like he said, I work at Park Ridge, but first it sounded like he said, I work at Park Ridge, but then it sounded like he said, I worked at Park Ridge. Now back to the video where Pearson is being detained and he's asked about something on his vehicle. Does this car have lights? Because we see the lights on there. They don't work. No. Where's the switch at that you would activate them if you did have them? It was underneath the front, but they don't work. Underneath the floorboard, it's...

These right here? It doesn't work. It doesn't work, like I said. I had, yeah... They were there when I... 7232, come up there... That's the wall W5... 7232... That's the wall that we fired. 72-32.

You said you installed that yourself? Uh-huh. They're just, yeah, I mean, I never used them. Yeah, but you put those, you installed those lights, so they're actually police lights that flash like police lights? Police lights, but I never used them. So how did they get on there? I mean, I put them on myself, but it was just... Okay, so see, listen to what I'm telling you now.

You have police lights on a vehicle that you're saying apparently don't work, but you have lights on here, you're carrying around a badge, and you're not a sworn police officer. So that's all of impersonation, impersonating a police officer. When I was working there, I had a badge. Okay, so you understand, when you get terminated from a job, that should automatically come off.

That should not be on your vehicle at all because now you have these on your vehicle and you also have a badge. As each moment passes, things appear to get worse for Scott Pearson, and the deputy explains why they're so concerned about the badge and now the police lights. Okay, so you understand when you get terminated from a job, that should automatically come off. That should not be on your vehicle at all because now you have these on your vehicle and you also have a badge. So how do we know you're not pulling somebody over? You could say, yeah, they don't work right now, but there's something you could probably go under the hood, connect them, and you could start pulling people over and acting like you're still the police and you're not.

So that's all evidence of impersonating a police officer which at time you should just turn your your stuff into Park Ridge or whoever was except the badge you should turn the badge in as well yeah okay did you answer that's my I'm supposed to my baby mama and pussy and my kids okay Give me a second. I'm supposed to pick them up in a half hour. Okay. We're going to go this one or, yeah, because we're going to be right here anyway, because we don't want to be too far. And then we'll go from there after we see what Sarge says right now.

You don't got nothing in the back, right? No. All right. Let's see. Watch your head. Yeah. Got it? All right. Alright, have a seat. Slide your head. Yeah. Got it? Alright.

You got it? Got it. Just turn your foot. You gotta turn your foot somehow. Yep. There you go. Turn your body. There you go. Let me get this seat. And you can call all my bosses. I was going to do that. That person, that guy was actually with the retirement party for one of my guys tonight.

I understand, but you see where we're coming from, right? If I'm a police officer right now and I get terminated and I carry a badge on me and I open up my wallet and I have a badge there and I have a vehicle with actually police lights still on it, that's red flags. At my point, I would say, you know what, I'm terminated. I'm going to need to get rid of this badge, turn this back into them, and I'm going to take these lights off this vehicle. Okay, well, we'll talk over that one a little bit. What was the reason behind the registration again for that? The officer gets ready to search Pearson's SUV and things get a little bit worse for Pearson.

All right, at this time, I'm going to go through your whole vehicle. Do you have anything in there that I should know of? weapons anything anywhere anything's going to poke me stick me anywhere in that car you sure So I'll see if we're going to have to tow it, see if Sarge wants to do an admin tow or if he wants to do a regular tow because it is going to be a good time I'll go to the car.水を注ぐ All right, police lights. Hey, they do work. They're working. They're flashing. So vehicle does have, as you can see, police lights in the front that was installed by the suspect. Remember, Pearson told the officers the lights didn't work, but clearly

they do. He's not just being detained now, he's being arrested. And at some point, the officer answers Pearson's phone. This is Officer Perea with the Cook County Sheriff's Police Department. I don't know who the guy is that you're calling. I think he is being detained at the moment. He is being arrested for impersonating a police officer. So he's going to be in custody. He will be going down to the station at Maywood. He will have probably a court hearing tomorrow to see what his bond is going to be, if they're going to bond him or give him a bond. And his vehicle will be seized, it's going to be towed because

there are police lights on the vehicle that are actively working as well. So right now this is an investigation, so he is being detained, okay? Once he gets his phone call from the station, he'll probably give you a call. Okay. Okay, bye. Bye. Nettos All right. The officers go back to Scott Pearson and they let him know they caught him in a fib. All right, go ahead and step up. I'm gonna readjust the cause. And then that's another red flag right there. You told me them lights don't work. They do work.

Well, you can say all you want to say, but they're plugged in and they're actively working. So I have them on now. I'm going to readjust because this thing's over here. Readjust them for what? I just want to make sure I can fit a finger. Okay. Re-adjust them for what? Just want to make sure I can fit a finger. Yeah. You can. Yeah, you can.

Put a whole finger in there. Give me a second. Here, pull your hands a little closer. I'm trying. That's the best I can do. That's about two moves right there. Yeah, I know. Wait.

You want to just flip him the other way? Then another officer comes to the scene and he tells the story. Did someone see his lights on or something? No. So the officer, my partner pulled him over for an expired tag from 23. Pulled him over for expired tag and come to find out when he comes up to him, talks to him, the guy opens up his wallet and has his badge right there. He's like, oh, you're a police officer? He's like, uh, yeah. And I'll say, he's like, wait, from where? He's like Park Ridge. He's like, well, uh, I used to work there. And then he started trying to change the story around. And then we've seen the lights on there, too. We found that activated the lights were like. So, yeah. Oh, yeah. We verified with Park Ridge. Yeah. No, we let him go a couple of months ago

already. Scott Pearson was taken to the police station where an officer walked him inside to go through the booking process. He was cited and released, but not before they took a booking photo. He was indicted in March on one count of impersonation of a police officer, and he's due in court on May 14th. So now I'd like to bring in Marie Pereira. She is a former prosecutor and a defense attorney. Marie, I really want your first reaction about this case because it's all on video. And we have this Scott Pearson getting pulled over. And, you know, the cops basically say, hey, you're showing me your license, but you got a badge there and you're no longer a cop.

And then they start questioning him and going from there. You know, what do you think about this? What's your gut telling you about this based on, you know, what we know based on the police report and the video? My gut is telling me once a cop, always a cop. And he probably felt even though he was retired or terminated from the police department, somehow he could use his badge to influence

other police officers and trigger that blue wall where we protect each other. So when they pulled him over, he was like, OK, those are my homeboys. Let me pull out the trustee badge. It's almost like the little PBA card that people who donate get. You pull it out and you're thinking it's going to get you some type of preferential treatment. And it blew up in his face because whoever stopped him, they didn't consider them to be homeboys of each other. And they treated him like a regular person, unfortunately for him. Yeah. I mean, I kind of think about it.

When you pull out your license, there are probably a couple of ways you can do that. You don't necessarily have to pull it out in the wallet. You can pull it out and, you know, hand it over. But this kind of almost makes it sound like he was flashing the badge, you know, like he was opening the wallet and, you know, the wallet has the badge right there, you know, with the license. And so that kind of raised their suspicion a little bit because he, he kind of sounded like he was acting like he might still be a cop at first, but then he cleaned it up and he said, well, I don't work there anymore.

So, I mean, it seems like he, if he was indeed flashing the badge to get out of whatever, I mean, that just was like a really bad move. Really bad move for him because the people who stopped him, they were not a part of that blue wall, clearly. He probably thought, you know what, even if I don't work there anymore. If I gently open my wallet, they see the badge. They're going to say, oh, he's one of us regardless. And it just didn't happen for him because nowadays, I guess they have police officers in that particular state with integrity and they don't give each other passes when the law is being broken. Yeah. And they called and checked it out too, which I found to

be very interesting because they didn't like that he was carrying the badge despite not working there anymore. They said that, you know, you're supposed to turn that over. You're not supposed to still have that. You're not supposed to be carrying that thing around if you're not working there anymore. So that really raised their concern. And then the concern gets kicked up a notch when they see that he's got lights on his personal vehicle. Not the lights. I mean the lights, that's a whole nother level of concern because why do you need lights on your personal vehicle? Exactly. And I love the fact that they called to verify who he was. Did he work there? They just didn't accuse him unjustly. They had an idea and then they followed

up with proper investigation and they were told he used to work for us, but he no longer does. And then they went on to do more investigation. Like you said, why would you have police lights unless you're maybe pulling over people? In this world, you know, of crime, and we've covered a lot of weird cases where people actually are pulling over citizens pretending to be police officers and then perpetuating crimes on them.

So that light and the fact that he said at first it didn't work and then they saw it did work really showed some sort of nefarious reason for having the lights and the badge, which were no longer valid. Yeah. And that's, I was going to ask you about that next. The fact that they asked him about the lights, He said, you know, I got them from the PD and I put them on myself, but they don't work. And then they went and flipped the switch. And of course they work. The lights turn on red and blue. I mean, this is all very concerning and it makes you wonder, are they going back to look to see if potentially he was doing something he shouldn't have been doing with the badge and the lights after leaving the police department?

Absolutely. And the fact that he tried to lie about it is what we call consciousness of guilt. Why are you lying about the lights working if you didn't do anything wrong. People lie to cover up and police officers know this. So the fact that he didn't tell the truth about that makes it worse for him because a crime like this, they have to prove that he willfully wore maybe a badge or exhibited a badge and or an emblem with an intent to make somebody else believe that he was a peace officer. That's all they have to do. Based on what I saw, they've proven their case because he had it.

He's lying about the lights and it just shows guilt on his part. All right. Now let's look at the other side of the coin. If you're Scott Pearson and you're driving around and he's, you know, at one point the phone rings and he's supposed to meet up with his girlfriend and, you know, pick up the child and all of this stuff. Maybe he's a busy guy. He hasn't had time to take care of all this, get the lights off the car, all this stuff. I mean, how do you defend him? If Scott Pearson comes to you and says, I'm in a jam, this is what happened, help me out. How do you defend him? I would argue that this is a specific intent crime and you have to show that not only he possessed it, but he intended to defraud someone else into believing he was a police officer. So unless he uttered the words, I am a police officer, I would argue they haven't quite proven all the elements of the crime because you have to show intent and willfulness. Them seeing the badge alone is not enough because he never tried to say

that he was a police officer. They just saw it and then they ran with it. That's what I would argue. But again, the law doesn't require that you tell someone. You simply have to have the emblem or device and that's it. Just having it is enough. Yeah. And just act, maybe, maybe not even walking around with a uniform. Maybe you don't have to have a uniform on, but just having the lights on the car and the badge. I mean, is that enough? I think it's a weak case. And if I was his defense attorney, I would argue the intent was not there because he didn't take any steps in furtherance of perpetuating this alleged fraud. He simply had a badge in his wallet, which he never said with his mouth, I'm a cop and you saw lights. The only thing he did was lie about the lights working.

So I would argue based on intentionality to perpetuate a fraud. And I would say that part was missing from the element of the crime. That's what I would argue. But the crime, when you really read the statute, it doesn't say that you have to utter any words or take any steps in furtherance. But as a defense attorney, you have to be tenacious

and just put it out there and argue for your client. Well, those police officers, as you mentioned, they were not, I mean, they were not playing that day. They were not playing. They were not. And they were pretty adamant about taking him into custody and charging him. I mean, they were, it was interesting to see how quickly they reacted. I was actually kind of surprised by that. Were you? I was. I was because I figured once he showed it to them, whether or not he's a retired cop, former cop, once a cop, always a cop. And they stick together almost like a veteran. When you serve the country country you get special treatment you get to go ahead in line and even now on airplanes all you know war veterans please

come on first so i would think that his own people his own former homeboys would give him a pass but i was proud of what they did because at the end of the day that is corruption he doesn't work there anymore he shouldn't get any special treatment and who knows what he was doing with that badge and the lights. I'm glad they did that, but I was surprised. It raises a lot of questions. It really does. Well, Marie Pereira, I appreciate your time. It's so good to see you. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. And as I mentioned earlier, Scott Pearson will be back in court in May. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me.

I'll see you back here next time.