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Man guilty of showing illegal badge
Tuesday, December 23, 2003
By Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After a split verdict came in last night, Findlay Constable William DeForte Jr. cried in relief while his co-defendant, German watchmaker Michael Kobold, smiled and talked to reporters.
Both seemed relieved that their trial in federal court was finally over, even though the jury convicted one of them.
The jury found Kobold guilty of lying to U.S. Customs agents last year when he used a badge to skirt security at Pittsburgh International Airport.
But the jury found DeForte not guilty of two counts of lying to the same agents about how Kobold acquired the badge, which DeForte had given him.
Kobold, a sharp-dressing 24-year-old German citizen who runs Kobold Watch Co. in Robinson, could spend a few months in federal prison and will almost certainly be deported to Germany.
But he seemed unfazed by the verdict and said he'll continue to design and sell his line of watches.
"I would have moved back [to Germany] anyway," he said as he left the courthouse with his lawyer, Stanton Levenson. "I think I'm fine. I don't think I'll be destroyed."
Kobold said he was pleased for his former friend. He said DeForte would have had a much harder time finding work had he been convicted because it would have meant an end to his law enforcement career.
DeForte, 32, had no comment after the verdict, but he was obviously overjoyed as he hugged his family and friends.
"Merry Christmas," he said as he left the courthouse.
His lawyer, Leonard Sweeney, said the criminal justice system worked the way it was supposed to.
The government said both men told repeated lies to Customs after Kobold flashed a constable's badge stamped with DeForte's ID number to bypass security at the airport on Dec. 8, 2002, and escort his brother to Gate 61 for a flight home to Germany.
When Customs Inspector John Rupchis stopped him, he held up the badge and said, "I'm with the state. I'm a Pennsylvania state constable."
County police Detective Patrick Miller arrested Kobold the next day at his office in the Parkway Industrial Park.
The case was turned over to federal authorities, and a grand jury indicted Kobold. DeForte was later indicted on charges of lying several times to Customs agents about how Kobold got badges.
Kobold's defense was that he thought he was a deputy constable because DeForte had told him he was. He maintained that stance after the verdict.
"I really did believe I was a constable," he said.
Testimony revealed that Kobold wore a badge and carried a gun in helping DeForte serve bench warrants in 2002, when the two were close friends.
The pair also shopped at a North Side uniform store together in June 2002, where Kobold bought badges stamped with DeForte's number.
DeForte said on Friday that he did give Kobold the badge he used at the airport and admitted he was at the store with Kobold in June. But he said he didn't see Kobold buy badges that day and had told his friend not to buy any because he wasn't a constable.
"I gave Mike one badge," he said. "I did not give or purchase any other badges for Mike."
His testimony differed from that of Jay Smith, proprietor of H.A. Smith & Son Uniforms, who said DeForte used his credentials to help Kobold buy badges.
DeForte told Customs agents that he had heard "through the grapevine" that Kobold bought badges on his own. He repeated that story in court, but he couldn't explain Jay Smith's testimony or why his name appeared on a receipt.
Kobold wasn't the person who wasn't a deputy to go out on arrests with DeForte. Two of his friends, both Germans who attended Carnegie Mellon University with him, said they also tagged along with DeForte, Kobold and DeForte's two real deputies, William Crowell and Travis Shaheen.
Kobold will be sentenced March 19.