A Baton Rouge man accused of impersonating a cop was once one | Education

James Bell Jr. identified himself as a reserve police officer and called Baton Rouge police on a Friday afternoon in early September to report that he had just caught a man trying to steal wiring from a school building and needed help.

However, Bell is not a reserve police officer. Not anymore.

Records show Bell took an oath years ago to serve as a reserve officer for the Clinton Police Department. But when questioned, Clinton police told Baton Rouge authorities that Bell was not an “active” reserve officer for the agency.

Even if he was still an active member of law enforcement, Bell lacked the legal authority to take the actions he was accused of.

The decision by Bell, administrative director of facilities for the East Baton Rouge Parish school system, to identify himself as an officer of the law would prove fateful. It led to his own arrest 19 days later on charges of falsely impersonating a police officer, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

He also faces one count of aggravated battery. That is also a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison, making it the most serious of the charges Bell faces.

The man he held at gunpoint told Baton Rouge police that after Bell hit him, he used his gun to hit him in the back of the head. Police noted a “severely swollen area at the back” of the man’s head, prompting them to send him to a hospital for treatment. The man also identified Bell as his attacker, choosing him from a photo lineup of six people.

Bell was released from the parish jail on $17,000 bail. He is still on paid leave from his high school administrative job. Bell is under an internal investigation by the district.

Even if Bell is cleared by his employer, his bond, as it stands, would make it difficult for him to return to work. It includes a special, handwritten condition that Bell “may not enter any school buildings or property of East Baton Rouge Parish.”

‘Agent for help’

Records show that when the Baton Rouge station received his call, Bell’s self-identification as an officer was taken seriously and classified as an “officer assistance call.”

An officer rushed to the 5800 block of Packard Street and found Bell pointing a gun at a man lying on the ground. According to a subsequent review of body camera footage, Bell again identified himself as a reserve police officer, specific to the city of Clinton, and was wearing a badge.

Bell said that after he spotted the alleged thief in the building, most recently the Zion City School home, he chased him off campus and onto Packard Street, a residential road that borders the back of the school.

Bell grew up in Clinton and graduated from Clinton High. He worked for the East Feliciana Parish school system for nearly two decades, first as a math teacher and band director before overseeing the parish’s school facilities for many years. In 2021, he moved south and was hired by the East Baton Rouge Parish school system.

Clinton police told Baton Rouge police they know Bell, but said he is not an “active” reserve officer for the city of 1,300. The BRPD report does not indicate whether Bell has been a reserve police officer in Clinton in the past.

Court records in East Feliciana Parish show that Bell took an oath to serve as a reserve officer for the Clinton Police Department in 2014 and did so again in 2018. However, it is not clear when Bell’s last stint as a reserve police officer for the East Feliciana Parish seat ended.

Clinton Police Chief Ned Davis did not return multiple voicemails and emails left by The Advocate this week seeking comment.

The Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement oversees who can legally wear a badge in the state.

Bob Wertz, training manager for the commission, said active members of law enforcement, whether full-time, part-time or reserve, have annual obligations to maintain their legal status, including having to pass firearms training. He said he doesn’t have Bell in any database, including his training database.

Wertz said law enforcement officers, with the exception of officers with a national reach, such as those in the state police, are limited to the jurisdictions where they are assigned. To serve as officers elsewhere, he said, they typically need a legal arrangement, either personal or at the agency level, with the law enforcement agency in which they operate. There is no evidence that Bell had such an arrangement.

“Basically he just becomes another citizen,” Wertz said.

School site of vandalism

The schoolhouse, built in 1951, sits on 25 acres of land owned by the parochial school system. Although it has had many incarnations, it most recently housed Zion City School, an independent charter school with about 60 students that closed in May after the state charter was not renewed.

Ashley Eason, associate superintendent of operations for Redesign Schools Louisiana, the group that led Zion City School, said the school was officially transferred to East Baton Rouge on June 30.

“There was no forced entry while we were in that building,” Eason said.

Taylor Gast, a spokeswoman for the school system, said the building was recently vandalized, including the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system being tampered with, wiring removed and doorknobs stolen. She also said facilities staff, including Bell, regularly come by to check on vacant properties in the neighborhood.

The man who caught Bell that day has not yet been arrested in connection with the attempted theft from the school. He denied entering the Zion City School, but admitted to police that “he did intend to take the wiring and fans that were left outside the building.”

That man is not identified in the reports arising from Bell’s arrest. But other court records show police arrested a man on that same block of Packard Street about 50 minutes after the call from Bell, a person who lives within walking distance of the school and has a lengthy criminal record.

However, that man’s arrest documents from that day make no mention of the events of September 6. The arrest was made on an outstanding warrant issued a month earlier regarding the theft of air conditioning units from a property in another part of Baton. Rouge.

Darren Ahmed, a public information officer with the Baton Rouge Police Department, would not confirm the identity of the potential school thief, but said police are still investigating and determining what, if any, charges should be filed against that person.