NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A York College student who was stopped by police after leaving Kennedy Airport was charged with impersonating a federal agent, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
1010 WINS AUDIO: Mona Rivera Reports
Stephan M. Kishore's masquerade came to an end after a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officer stopped his minivan Monday afternoon on an expressway near John F. Kennedy International Airport for changing lanes without signaling, prosecutors said.
The officer said he noticed a large police decal on a rear door of the minivan and red and blue strobe lights on the dashboard. There also were two U.S. Department of Homeland Security parking placards on the dashboard, prosecutors said.
Kishore, who is from Trinidad but lives in the Bronx, then showed the officer a phony Homeland Security ID card and shield, prosecutors said. When asked if he was a police officer, Kishore replied, "Yes, and I'm on duty,'' they said.
However, the officer became suspicious when he read on the back of the shield: "CopShop.com, Collectible Badge, Not For Official Use.'' CopShop, based in Umatilla, Fla., calls itself the online mall for cops, selling sheriff's office badges, state trooper patches, collectible pins and law enforcement apparel.
Kishore later admitted he was not a police officer and had made the ID card on his home computer, prosecutors said.
Kishore, 20, was arraigned Tuesday night in Queens Criminal Court on charges of criminal impersonation, forgery and criminal possession of a weapon, a forged instrument and forgery devices, District Attorney Richard Brown said.
"The defendant's alleged conduct in this era of heightened security was both dangerous and reprehensible because it exploited the public's trust in the police and placed both his life and those of actual police officers in possible jeopardy,'' Brown said in a statement.
Kishore, a student at York College in Queens, was being held Wednesday on $50,000 bail. His next court date is Sept. 5. He could face up to seven years in prison if convicted.
Bernice Kishore, his aunt, reached by phone at her home in central Trinidad, said the young man was a 4.0 student on scholarship and had always dreamed of being a police officer.
"He has always been obsessed with being a cop and had decals all over his room,'' she said.
She added that her nephew, who was licensed as a locksmith at age 18, had been taking flying lessons at LaGuardia Airport.
"But he isn't political. He would never be a threat like a terrorist,'' she said. "He's really more of a big kid. He's kind of childish.''
Stephan Kishore admitted he had templates to make insignia and credentials for numerous police agencies and had several federal and local police ID cards, two stun guns, two pellet guns and two starter pistols in his bedroom, prosecutors said.
Police said they recovered the guns, a laptop computer, a laminator and blank ID cards during the execution of a search warrant at his home.
They also said they found 32 federal police ID cards, including ones for the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and shields for city departments including police and correction.
Kishore also is charged with changing the expiration date of his temporary visitor's status on his driver's license from August 2005 to 2006 with a red pen and with violating the city's Administrative Code relating to firearms, using police uniforms or emblems and placing state seals and insignia on private vehicles.
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