Police in Los Angeles arrested three people in connection with
operating a fictitious police department they said was 3,000 years old
and had jurisdiction over 33 states and Mexico. Los Angeles
County sheriff's officials told The Associated Press that Brandon Kiel,
31, David Henry, 46, and Tonette Hayes, 58, were arrested last week on
suspicion of impersonating officers as members of an organization they
called Masonic Fraternal Police Department.
The website lists Henry as its chief of police. The AP reports that Kiel
is on administrative leave from his job as deputy director of community
affairs at the California Department of Justice. The Los Angeles Times reports that he's a "low-level aide to California Attorney General Kamala Harris." A police spokeswoman told the AP that deputies found ID cards, uniforms
and vehicles "that appeared to look like law enforcement vehicles along
with other official police equipment during their search of a home and
office linked to the group."
The Grand Masonic Lodge of California denies ever having heard of them. If they had not been arrested, their next move may well have been to start erecting fake cornerstones.
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