Sandy MaloneGlynn County, GA – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) have joined the Georgia State Patrol (GSP) in a manhunt for a fugitive impersonating a police officer in Glynn County who is wanted for the same crime in New Jersey.
GSP has asked residents of coastal Georgia to be on the lookout for 55-year-old Frederick Mark Parisi, who was most recently employed as a security guard at the historic Jekyll Island Club Hotel inside a state park on Jekyll Island, WJXT reported.
“Along Coastal Georgia and up the coast of the United States, this man had been involved in things,” Camden County Sheriff’s Office Captain Larry Bruce warned.
Troopers said that Parisi was working as a security guard at the historic hotel when he presented himself at the local state police barracks on Jekyll Island and said he was a retired Iowa state trooper with more than 30 years of law enforcement experience, WJXT reported.
Investigators later found out that Parisi had worked for that state law enforcement agency for less than a year before he was terminated.
When the troopers learned that Parisi was driving a navy blue Ford Explorer equipped with police lights, they advised him it was illegal to use them without the proper permit.
GSP said that Parisi ignored the warning and proceeded to use his blue lights while he was on Jekyll Island more than once, so he was told he could no longer drive that vehicle on the island, WJXT reported.
Last week, the state patrol said it started receiving complaints about a police impersonator who had stopped multiple vehicles in nearby Camden County.
When investigators checked into Parisi, they discovered that he was wanted on a warrant out of New Jersey.
And that opened up an entire Pandora’s box of Parisi’s prior attempts to impersonate law enforcement officers, WJXT reported.
Court records showed that Parisi was convicted of impersonating a U.S. Secret Service agent in New Jersey after he obtained a genuine set of that agency’s credentials and made a fake set for himself.
Investigators said he was caught after he tried to badge himself out of a traffic ticket with the false federal credentials, WJXT reported.
Parisi was also convicted of impersonating a Jersey City police officer in the 1990s while he was repossessing vehicles.
A year before that conviction, he was fired by the Passaic New Jersey Police Department after he was accused of falsifying documents, WJXT reported.
Parisi also had a history with the nearby Camden County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO), according to officials there.
“He came into our office and wanted to apply for a permit to run a blue light. I said you can’t do that. He had already been impersonating. He also came to us several months ago and put in a job application. We rejected him based on prohibitive criminal history,” CCSO Colonel Chuck Byerley told WJXT.
Col. Byerley said his agency knew about the New Jersey investigations when they found about yet another one in Palm Beach, Florida.
Capt. Bruce said authorities planned to pursue additional charges against Parisi in Georgia when he’s taken into custody on the other warrants, WJXT reported.
The captain said those charged would include impersonating an officer, giving false statements to law enforcement, possession of a handgun by a convicted felon, and unauthorized use of blue lights while operating a vehicle.
“The deputies have a hard enough job on a daily basis without having to deal with people imitating their actions as law enforcement when they are not law enforcement,” he told WJXT.
FBI and GBI agents are assisting the state patrol in its investigation and search for Parisi.
Holly Matkin
