Thursday, February 19, 2009

Joe Cafasso, aka Bob Stormer, in custody on FTA charge

From the Chesterton Tribune:

A man who had been residing in Chesterton under the name of Robert Stormer and was charged with false informing in October 2008 when a DNR Conservation Officer said that he identified himself with the Social Security number of a Rhode Island girl is being held at the Porter County Jail on a charge of failure to appear.

Joseph Cafasso, 52, was taken into custody on Jan. 22 on a warrant charging him with failure to appear, court documents show. According to the Inmate Information System at the Porter County Jail, he is being held on a $500 cash-only bond, with no release date presently scheduled.

At 6:45 p.m. on Oct. 2, Conservation Officer Robert Cauffman stopped a male subject on the main road leading into Indiana Dunes State Park after clocking him at 35 miles per hour in a zone posted at 20 mph, Cauffman stated in his incident report.
The subject, who identified himself as Robert Stormer, 58, advised Cauffman that he did not have his Rhode Island-issued driver's license with him. Cauffman stated that when he ran the name Robert Stormer, it “came back not on file” in both Indiana and Rhode Island. Cauffman further stated that when he ran the Social Security number provided by Stormer, it returned to a 13-year-old Rhode Island girl.

Although the subject repeatedly insisted that his name is Robert Stormer and that there must be a problem with the computers, he eventually admitted to being Joseph Cafasso, 52, Cauffman stated. A second computer check listed his driver’s license in Rhode Island as suspended.

“During this conversation he stated he was hiding from members of the CIA and FBI along with several other stories,” Cauffman stated.


bwahahahaha!

In addition to the charge of false informing—a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a term of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine—citations for speeding and driving while suspended-infraction were issued to Cafasso and an initial hearing was scheduled for Nov. 17.


The CHARGE OF FALSE INFORMATION. Did you get that, FLY?

Court documents show that Cafasso did not appear at the hearing and a bench warrant for his arrest on a charge of failure to appear was issued on Nov. 24. Cafasso was arrested on the FTA charge on Jan. 22, he entered a plea of not guilty on Jan. 23, and a bench trial before Porter Superior Court Judge Julia Jent has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 19, court documents also show.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 2, a woman who said that she had met a person calling himself Robert Stormer on an on-line dating service, and later lived with him, asked Chesterton Police to take custody of a computer which she said belongs to Cafasso. The woman advised the CPD that her son had recently been contacted by a man whom she believes to be a “Special Forces soldier who went rogue and tortured people in Afghanistan” and was subsequently “jailed in a military prison.” That man, she advised the CPD, “blames Cafasso for his troubles” on the ground that Cafasso “was instrumental in building a case against” him.

The CPD did take custody of the computer at Cauffman's request, police said, after Cauffman indicated that he may apply for a warrant to search the computer as part of an ongoing investigation of Cafasso.

Last week, however, Cauffman told the Chesterton Tribune, through a spokesperson, that he is no longer discussing the Cafasso case and has turned it over to the FBI. Special Agent Wendy Osborne of the FBI's Indianapolis office told the Tribune that, per policy, she can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.

The responding CPD officer appended to his report a Wikipedia entry purportedly on a Joseph A. Cafasso which claims, among other things, that a man under the name of Cafasso had worked for Fox News as a military and counterterrorism analyst until leaving the network when allegations surfaced that he had misrepresented his military record.

Posted 2/18/2009


I haven't checked Cramer's work at Cafasso's wikipedia page yet to see if she has caught up with the update that it ISN'T SOLELY A TRAFFIC VIOLATION that he is charged with.

I'm also glad to see someone in media decided to spell Cauffman's name right.

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