‘Undercover agent’ who kept showing up at Georgia crime scenes was a fraud, feds say
When a man armed with an AR-15 rifle clad in a bullet proof vest showed up on the scene of a shooting in south Georgia claiming to be a federal agent, a local police investigator told the FBI he was grateful to have backup.
Then it kept happening.
The man, 23-year-old Marlon De’Adrain Priest, appeared unbidden at enough local crime scenes that officers with the Remerton Police Department in Valdosta, Georgia, came to believe he was an undercover agent with the Office of Special Investigations at Moody Air Force Base — mostly because that’s who he claimed to be, prosecutors said.
There was just one problem: Priest had never been an undercover agent with the Air Force, a federal agent said.
Priest pleaded guilty to two counts of impersonating a federal officer in the Middle District of Georgia, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in a news release. He now faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count when he’s sentenced in January.
“Marlon Priest created a false appearance of authority and power to scam and intimidate his victims. Impersonating a federal agent is a serious crime that will not be tolerated in the Middle District of Georgia,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. “I want to commend the real investigators who brought Priest to justice.”
Public defenders representing Priest declined to comment in a statement to McClatchy News on Thursday.
Crashing crime scenes
Police officers in Remerton became suspicious of Priest after several interactions with him in the field.
Remerton is an enclave of Valdosta about 15 miles from the Florida state line. Moody Air Force Base is about 13 miles the opposite direction.
According to his plea agreement, Priest held himself out as an undercover agent from the base when he arrived at crime scenes in Remerton. The police department reportedly has recordings in which he reiterates that claim as well as videos of him impersonating an officer at crime scenes.
One day while wearing an Air Force lieutenant insignia on his shirt, Priest reportedly asked police investigator Carl Dudley about how he could become a police officer.
“Dudley found it strange that a lieutenant in the Air Force/OSI Special Agent would be interested in becoming a police officer,” prosecutors said.
But it wasn’t until Dudley called Moody Air Force Base to confirm Priest’s identity on Sept. 1, 2020, that he discovered the truth.
According to Special Agent Rogelio Ruiz — an actual federal agent with the Office of Special Investigations at the base — Priest was at one time an airman in the U.S. Air Force. But he was discharged in February 2019 for allegedly misusing a military credit card, Ruiz said.
Ruiz called the FBI later that day to report the allegations.
Faking traffic stop, scamming fraud victim
Priest’s alleged involvement with local crime scenes while posing as a federal agent prompted the FBI to investigate further, according to the plea agreement.
They discovered Priest had pulled someone over in Lowndes County five months earlier while pretending to be an undercover agent at the Air Force base, prosecutors said. He was reportedly armed with a Glock pistol, wearing a bullet proof vest and had flashing police lights and a PA system on his car.
Prosecutors said Priest called 911 after he stopped the driver and told dispatchers he was an undercover agent who followed a “speeding red pickup truck” to a local RV park.
During the call, Priest was reportedly heard ordering the driver to turn off his car and put his hands out the window. Prosecutors said Priest eventually approached the driver and a woman took over his call with the 911 operator.
Deputies with the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, court documents state, but it wasn’t clear if the driver was ticketed or if they suspected Priest of being a fraud.
According to the plea agreement, Priest impersonated a federal agent on a second occasion in October 2020, when he was on the FBI’s radar. Prosecutors said Priest was contacted around that time by a former Walmart cashier he met who believed he was an FBI agent.
The woman reportedly told him she was scammed by a man she met on Facebook who claimed he could get her a $3,000 return on investment if she sent him $300 on CashApp.
Priest told her she could either pay the courts $125 to file a civil suit or send him $85 to initiate the case on her behalf, prosecutors said. She sent him the money, but he accused her of lying a few days later and threatened to press charges.
“Priest told (her) that she made false statements, and that he put his name on the line and gave her a discount with the courts to open the case,” prosecutors said. “Priest then told (her) that he had to pay a $150 fine, and that she needed to pay him back.”
A grand jury indicted Priest in December 2020 on four counts of impersonating an officer. Court filings show he was arrested in May.
A magistrate judge ordered him to remain in jail pending trial, citing the weight of evidence against him, his lack of ties to the area and previous attempts to evade law enforcement. Priest is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 20.
This story was originally published October 21, 2021 at 1:21 PM with the headline "‘Undercover agent’ who kept showing up at Georgia crime scenes was a fraud, feds say."
