Man gets 4 years for posing as officer
A Prince George’s County man was sentenced to four years in prison Friday for posing as a federal prosecutor and trying to derail cases against him for theft and credit card fraud and for attacking a police officer.
Charles A. Barnes, 27, of Oxon Hill was sentenced by District Superior Court Judge Ronna L. Beck after pleading guilty May 25 to obstruction of justice, U.S. Attorney for the District Ronald C. Machen Jr. announced.
Beck telephoned a Howard University police investigator in August 2009 claiming to be an assistant U.S. attorney, telling the lead detective in his case that trial dates had changed and requesting the phone numbers of both witnesses in the case so he could telephone them too.
Investigator Robert Thompson recognized Barnes’s voice, however, recorded the conversation and gave Barnes a phone number that a D.C. police officer answered under a witness’s name, to whom Barnes repeated his story.
Barnes eventually pleaded guilty in the police assault case and the other case was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
— Spencer S. Hsu
By
Washington Post Editors
|
September 17, 2010; 7:00 PM ET
Categories:
Maryland
,
Pr. George's
,
Spencer S. Hsu
Save & Share:
Previous: Armed man shot near U.S. Capitol
Next: Child strangles in drapery cord
Someone please confiscate his Mensa card...
Posted by: BigDaddy651 | September 18, 2010 9:27 AM | Report abuse
"Beck telephoned a Howard University police investigator in August 2009 claiming to be an assistant U.S. attorney,...."
Um, I thought Beck was the judge?! Barnes.
Correction.
Posted by: confounded | September 18, 2010 11:34 AM | Report abuse
What is a "District Superior Court" Judge?
Posted by: jnrentz@aol.com | September 18, 2010 12:54 PM | Report abuse
How about that headline: "posing as officer". wasn't he really posing as a prosecutor.
Posted by: Robinson84 | September 19, 2010 2:57 PM | Report abuse
WTF.. Is Barnes the culprit or Beck? ny relation to Glenn Beck?
Posted by: jellybean5 | September 20, 2010 10:41 AM | Report abuse
We encourage users to analyze, comment on and even challenge washingtonpost.com's articles, blogs, reviews and multimedia features.
User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions.