Residents of Gerald have been reeling this week from a nearly nonstop barrage of revelations and speculations concerning a federal agent poser lurking in their local police department.

The police chief, lieutenant, and an officer were terminated following a more than five hour closed meeting of the Board of Alderman on May 6.

Accusations of serious civil rights violations have prompted an FBI agent to make a temporary home in the vacated chief’s office as he interviews those involved.

The Missouri Highway Patrol also has investigators in the Gerald Police Department checking records, evidence, and receipts —hoping to make sense of this burgeoning scandal.

Seeing their hometown sensationalized on the evening news night after night has caused many to become weary of the whole affair. But most continue to tune in hoping to glean a few facts from the hoopla.

Here is what we know for sure:

Bill A. Jakob came to town about three months ago, posing as a federal agent, supposedly sent to help an under-funded, small-town police force deal with illegal drugs.

Insisting on secrecy, Jakob convinced the GPD, aldermen, mayor and clerks to use only his first name. Terminated Police Chief Ryan McCrary insists that Jakob showed credentials, but he did not make copies. “I won’t let anyone copy mine either,” he noted. “You don’t know what someone might forge from the copies.”

Jakob drove a 2003 fully police equipped Ford Crown Victoria, which he purchased at a used car dealer in Franklin County within the last couple of months.

McCrary instructed City Clerk Sarah Wheeler to swear Jakob in “sometime in March,” according to Wheeler.

Jakob was not often in Gerald early on. His reign of terror seems to have begun in earnest on Thursday, April 24. He and at least four Gerald police members raced through town (and even out of town),  allegedly kicking in doors, entering homes without search warrants, threatening residents with firearms, and taking property out of homes without proper documentation.

The Board of Aldermen met in a special meeting on Saturday, April 26 to approve the purchase of a city truck. Before this meeting Mayor Otis Schulte and Brad Landwehr, then board president, were introduced to Jakob by McCrary. Ward 1 Alderman Richard Johnson and Ward 2 Alderman David Luechtefeld were both late for the meeting and missed the introduction. Ironically, the two latecomers had earlier been appointed by the mayor to oversee the police department. Ward 2 Alderman Dan Maxwell and Clerk Wheeler were not present at any part of the meeting.

Carmen Angell, city collector and court clerk, issued Jakob a police ticket/citation book Monday, May 5.

On May 8, following their regular monthly meeting, Bill A. Jakob was hired as a reserve police officer for the city of Gerald. Johnson made the motion with Luechtefeld offering a second. Aldermen Maxwell and Landwehr both voted in favor.

The following day, when The Republican called the GPD to get more information on the recently hired officer, McCrary seemed quite willing to misinform the media. After being asked each question, McCrary would lay the phone down, and have a muffled conversation with someone in the background. McCrary was laughing as he responded to each question as were others in the background.

When asked what Jakob’s title/duties would be with GPD, McCrary said, “We’re going to go with ‘consultant to the department.’”

“Providing operational guidance,” was how McCrary described the work Jakob had done with the department prior to his official hiring.

McCrary then relayed some of Jakob’s prior experience, which The Republican soon found to be fictitious.

The National City, Ill., police department where Jakob claimed to have worked for the last eight to nine years, was disbanded on March 1, 1998, according to Terry Beach, St. Clair County’s special court appointed receiver, assigned to dissolve the Village of National City.

A sheriff’s deputy from that county revealed that Jakob had been charged with a felonious sexual assault.

Franklin County court records revealed a wrongful death lawsuit with a judgement against Jakob that he successfully appealed. That suit was recently refiled.

KMOV TV 4’s Mike O’Connell reported Friday (May 16) that Jakob testified during the wrongful death lawsuit that he had been wounded in Iraq serving in the U.S. Army. A rocket hit a building he was inside and collapsed on top of him, he told the court. He also testified he had joined the U.S. Air Force as a chaplain following his Army tour in Iraq. O’Connell reported  the Air Force never had any such member. O’Connell said a follow up investigation he conducted confirmed what he already speculated — the Army had no record of Jakob serving in Iraq.

On May 9, Representatives of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department soon showed up at the Gerald police station and relieved Jakob of the Sergeant’s badge that he had been issued the night before.

Schulte has gone on record with several news sources praising the terminated officers. “We finally in 25 years had a good police department,” Schulte was quoted in The Missourian.

Over this past weekend, a petition began circulating, requesting “a recall election be held to remove Otis Schulte from the office of mayor.”

Schulte has told The Republican that he would not step down.

McCrary had earlier stated that he would report to Schulte, at his business, at least every two to three days to report on the progress of the department. Schulte says McCrary did not introduce him to Jakob prior to the April 26 meeting at city hall.

A former Gerald area resident, Kristopher A. Lang, an associate of Schulte’s, called Landwehr on Friday. “This guy will walk scot free,” Lang predicted to Landwehr. Lang also renewed his oft-spoken threats to bring his own lawsuit against the city.

At least two lawsuits have been filed. In one, 11 people are asking for awards of $11 million each.

Schulte says he has not checked with the city’s insurance carrier to see how much liability coverage the city has. “What’s the point, we don’t know how much the judge will award any of them. It could be $100 apiece or it could be nothing.”

The city clerk found the appropriate information in the city’s liability policy issued through MOPERM. “Our insurance states two million per one occurrence no matter how many parties are involved,” Wheeler writes.

Only Police Officer Andrew Rosenkoetter remains in the desiccated Gerald Police department. Officer Derrick Lewis resigned last Wednesday as did reserve officer Dan Beer.

Franklin County Sheriff deputies have been providing law enforcement protection to the city of Gerald.