08:03 AM CST on Tuesday, February 21, 2006

From 11 News Staff Reports

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A weird story has taken another weird turn, as authorities finally got their hands on a convicted police impersonator.

KHOU-TV

Weylin Spradley

Weylin Spradley was wanted for allegedly impersonating an officer again and got Ace Bailbonding to post bond for him over the weekend, although he did not physically turn himself in until Monday evening.

He was arrested outside of a bond agency around 8 p.m.

After posting a $5,000 bond on his behalf, Spradley still was not custody.

Authorities had asked Spradley to turn himself in.

The county has launched an investigation to find out exactly why the suspect wasn’t arrested the first time he turned himself in.

Houston police said Spradley was impersonating police and was armed and dangerous.

The 25-year-old went to turn himself in for the crime but was let out on bond because no one in the Harris County Sheriff’s Department knew he had violated his parole for previously impersonating an officer. The suspect should have been arrested.

“The parole violation warrant was good as of Friday,” said Sgt. Brian Carr, HPD.  “I would believe that Harris County, had they gotten their hands on them knowing it was him, they would have just held him.”

He is still wanted in Austin on a parole violation. In Houston, a charge is pending concerning a hot check to a business or theft by check.

The county said it is now investigating its own clerk to see if computer background checks were completed.

“The policy is that they do check these people in a secondary system through TCICNCIC, and that appears to have not happened on this particular case,” said Sgt. Bruce Carr, Harris County Sheriff’s Department.

What has both departments worried is that the suspect, they said, had the vehicle and uniforms to continue impersonating police and other government agencies.

“We take this very seriously, and we investigate these to the fullest.  What his is doing scares me.  I do not like to think that somebody can just take a car like this, dress it up and drive around.  And this is an individual that’s already been convicted of police impersonation,” said Sgt. Carr.