Former IRS Employee Charged With Impersonating A Federal Officer

NEWARK, N.J. – A former IRS attorney appeared in federal court today to face charges related to his alleged unauthorized use of a federal agency identification card during multiple traffic stops, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

Deon Owensby, 42, of Trenton, New Jersey, is charged by criminal complaint with one count of impersonating a federal officer and one count of possessing an official identification card of a federal agency without authorization. He appeared today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark federal court and was released on $20,000 unsecured bond.

According to the complaint:

From August 2015 to April 2017, after the termination of his employment with the IRS, Owensby allegedly pretended to be an IRS employee and displayed federal employee identification, including an official IRS identification card known as an “IRS Pocket Commission,” to law enforcement officers after committing traffic violations.

Owensby obtained the IRS Pocket Commission during his employment as an attorney with the IRS. The IRS Pocket Commission, which IRS employees use as a means of identifying themselves to the public when performing official duties, was to be returned to the IRS upon the end of his employment in April 2015.  However, Owensby told his supervisor that it was stolen.

Afterwards, Owensby allegedly displayed the IRS Pocket Commission or some form of federal employee identification to state or local police on three separate occasions from August 2015 to April 2017 after he was stopped for committing traffic infractions, once by a Millburn police officer and twice by N.J. State Police officers. During one of the encounters, Owensby claimed that the IRS Pocket Commission was still valid even after the police officer pointed out that the expiration date on it had passed.  

The count of impersonating a federal officer is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The count of possessing an official identification card of a federal agency without authorization is punishable by a maximum potential penalty of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine. 
 
U.S. Attorney Carpenito credited special agents of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Rodney A. Davis, with the investigation. He also thanked the N.J. State Police, under the direction of Acting Superintendent Col. Patrick J. Callahan, and the Millburn Police Department, under the direction of Chief Brian Gilfedder, for their assistance. 

The government is represented by Jihee G. Suh of the U.S. Attorney Office’s Special Prosecutions Division in Newark.   

The charges and allegations contained in the complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.

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Defense counsel: Patrick McMahon Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Newark