A man is accused of stalking a former high school classmate and impersonating a drug enforcement agent so that he could date her.
Jeremy Wade, 28, of Racine, was charged by the Racine County District Attorney’s Office on Friday with stalking and impersonating a peace officer. If convicted of both charges, he faces up to four years three months in prison and/or fines up to $20,000.
According to the criminal complaint, Wade and the woman knew each other from high school. In January, he showed up at the woman’s home unannounced in a white SUV. Wearing a badge around his neck and a gun holstered on his hip, he told the woman he was looking for a person by the name of Zach Light and showed the woman a photo she didn’t recognize.
Over the course of the next few weeks, the woman started receiving messages from a man under another name and Wade, who said he worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency as a “special agent.” Wade left a business card, which was made to look like a DEA business card in her mailbox. On the back of the card, Wade wrote on the back of the card that if he wanted to go out with him to call her.
Under the other persona, Wade tried to continue the discussion with the woman and told her that he knew she lived with “Zack on Lombard” and that the DEA “hit the spots in Mexico and Miami.” He then told the woman he would be in Racine that week and that he needed too “lay low for a couple of months.”
A few weeks later, he told the woman to have Zack get a hold of him. The woman told Wade — who was still writing to her under another persona — that she didn’t know Zack. Wade told her that he had seen her coming out of her home with him several times.
On Feb. 28, officers with the Racine Police Department interviewed Wade. He told police that he had been to the woman’s home, but had not returned. He also denied sending her any Facebook messages. When officers searched his vehicle, they found a .45 caliber pistol, and a package for a holster. Officers called the DEA and told them that they don’t have an officer named Jeremy C. Wade.
A cash bond was set at $500. Wade is expected to be in court for a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. March 14 in Racine County Felony Court.
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