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Wesley Rucker, 36, of Tinton Falls has had more than two years to consider a deal with the government rather than proceed with the case.
He hasn’t taken one, however, and now he’s under indictment.
Staff members at Hackensack Meridian Health Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank spotted Rucker carrying the handgun in his waistband, the ATF said.
“Rucker showed the security officer two identification cards in a leather bifold wallet with the Drug Enforcement Administration (”DEA”) logo embossed on the outside,” a federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Trenton says.
“The cards identified Rucker as a member of the DEA,” the complaint says.
The officer had Rucker store the 9mm pistol and ammunition in a locker in the hospital’s security office. Red Bank police were called.
Rucker showed responding officers the same identification while claiming he was a DEA agent and "intelligence specialist out of Newark,” according to the federal complaint.
He then tried to tip out of the hospital, leaving the gun behind, it says.
Officers caught up to Rucker, who “stated that he was no longer an active member of the DEA and he was not the owner of the handgun,” the complaint says.
He then gave them the key to the locker, it says.
The driver of a vehicle that Rucker approached gave the officers his backpack. Inside was the wallet and DEA ID cards that Rucker had previously displayed inside the hospital, as well as a gold DEA special agent badge, the complaint says.
On the flip side of the ID cards were warnings that they were for "cosplay collectible use only" and that misuse of the cards could constitute a crime, it says.
Using Rucker’s key, the officers seized a 9mm Glock Model 19 pistol from the locker, along with a 10-round magazine and 11 rounds of 9mm ammo.
“Rucker is not, and never has been, a member of the DEA,” the federal complaint asserts. “Indeed, Rucker is not, and never has been, employed by the DEA in any capacity.”
He was, however, convicted of illegal drug possession and obstruction in Middlesex County in November 2014. That made it automatically illegal for him to possess a firearm or ammunition.
Federal grand jurors in Trenton indicted Rucker on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, impersonating a federal agent and possession of an imitation badge.
U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Newark and Trenton field offices and the DEA, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and Red Bank and Old Bridge police with the investigation leading to the indictment, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian D. Brater of his Criminal Division in Trenton.
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