A man suing Little Rock over its encryption of police radio broadcasts has been accused of impersonating a Lonoke County sheriff's deputy and manufacturing fake IDs.
Sebastian Westerhold, 27, of Cabot, was arraigned Monday in Lonoke County Circuit Court on charges of second-degree criminal impersonation, possession of a forgery device and nine counts of first-degree forgery, a felony. He did not enter a plea in the case.
Westerhold, a circuit design engineer and blogger, also faces multiple misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and furnishing or selling alcohol to a minor.
He was being held in the Lonoke County jail in lieu of $15,000 bond.
The Lonoke County sheriff's office arrested Westerhold on March 29 after a 16-year-old girl said he sexually assaulted her at a party at his home, according to a court affidavit. He was not charged over that accusation, but during a search of his residence, deputies found eight fraudulent driver's licenses and a phony Lonoke County sheriff's office ID with Westerhold's name and photo, the affidavit says.
The sheriff's office said deputies also found items used to manufacture the IDs, including blank cards, printers, scanners and photography equipment. In the garage, deputies found a stack of blank papers the size of U.S. currency, according to the affidavit. Westerhold had boasted at the party about counterfeiting cash and showed stacks of fake money to attendees, the affidavit says. Several of those at the party were minors, for whom Westerhold bought and served alcohol, it says.
Westerhold is a native of Germany who says he holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He filed suit against Little Rock in August 2014 after the city's Police Department, citing privacy laws and officer safety concerns, began restricting its radio broadcasts from the public.
The lawsuit was one of two filed against the city over police radio encryption. The other, filed by Sherwood brothers Brandon and Jeremy Mullens, was dismissed in January 2015 after the plaintiffs failed to respond to a defense motion.
Westerhold's lawsuit states that the Police Department violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act after it denied his request for audio recordings of encrypted communication. The city has argued that certain information would need to be redacted from the recordings, thus creating a new record. The state Freedom of Information Act does not require the creation of a record to fulfill a records request.
The case, in which Westerhold has represented himself, had gone without activity for more than a year when, on March 3, Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen imposed new filing deadlines. City attorneys have since stated that the audio in question was deleted 31 days after being recorded, in accordance with city policy on data storage.
The cutoff for discovery motions in the case is Monday. The final filing deadline is Aug. 5. Westerhold is scheduled to go to trial in his criminal case that same week.
Although Westerhold has been unable to listen in on Little Rock police activity, he has tuned in to other law enforcement agencies that have open radio transmissions, the Lonoke County sheriff's office said.
"Mr. Westerhold has been seen with body armor and official looking credentials, LED warning lights in his vehicle and had been previously complained on for showing up before local law enforcement to [crime] scenes due to listening equipment he has had in his home and vehicle," detective James Hall wrote in the court affidavit.
Hall also wrote that the FBI had investigated Westerhold on suspicion of fraud.
"There have been previous incidents with Mr. Westerhold where he has falsely presented himself as a law enforcement officer online and in photographs," the affidavit states.
According to the court filing, Westerhold admitted to manufacturing seven fraudulent California driver's licenses for a 19-year-old woman, Amanda Bryant, so she could "get into nightclubs to party and have drinks" with him.
Bryant, of Cabot, faces charges of first-degree forgery in the case. She was not listed on the Lonoke County jail roster Monday.
Metro on 06/07/2016