Last month, U.S. Capitol Police got a call about an assault against a congressman.
The police arrived and asked the usual questions—name and ID, please. The man standing there in the 100 block of Independence Avenue, near the Capitol, said his name was Jack Kingston, the Georgia congressman, and confessed he wasn't carrying ID, according to court records.
The time: seven minutes before 1 a.m. on Nov. 17. The man gave police a license tag number of the alleged get-away vehicle, but a check of the information did not turn up a vehicle listing. He also told the authorities he was not hurt and that “the assailants actually never touched him.”
An officer asked the man about the Congressional lapel pin on his jacket. Oh, that thing? The man, according to police, told officers his late uncle, also a reported member of Congress, gave him the pin. (Court records do not name the man's uncle.)
Police soon confirmed the man with the pin was masquerading as a congressman. Jack Kingston, it turns out, is really Walter N. Lewis Jr., 24, of the District. Lewis was arrested and released on a charge of possession of a Congressional lapel pin.
From Capitol Police officer Vennak Pouch’s affidavit: “The Congressional lapel pin is a pin that is issued to members of Congress to bypass security when entering any Congressional building. The defendant was not authorized to have the Congressional lapel pin. It was later confirmed that the Congressional lapel pin that the defendant possessed was in fact an authentic Congressional lapel pin and was not issued to the defendant.”
Unlawful possession of a United States badge carries a maximum six-month sentence and the potential for a fine. Lewis was not immediately reached for comment today. Court records do not indicate whether he has hired an attorney.
The misdemeanor charge can’t be all that common, since Lewis, after his arrest, was mistakenly told on a citation to report to D.C. Superior Court for arraignment, court records show.
Angela George, a federal prosecutor in the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, this week asked a judge to issue a summons compelling Lewis to appear Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Prosecutors opted against requesting an arrest warrant.