Cop Impersonator Arrested Again On Gun Charges

CHICAGO (STMW) -- The South Side teenager who made national headlines for impersonating a Chicago Police officer and patrolling the streets as a 14 year old is in trouble with the law again, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Vincent Richardson was only a minor when he sauntered into the Grand Crossing District station in a uniform over two years ago, duping cops in an embarrassing stunt that led to disciplinary action within the department.

But the troubled teen, now 17, has been charged as an adult for his May 10 arrest for felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Richardson admitted to police that the semi automatic handgun discovered in the vicinity of the 5600 block of South Throop was his after officers performed a "protective pat down'' and found a magazine loaded with ammunition on him, police said.

Richardson is being held in Cook County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail.

Just months after his January 2009 cop impersonating stunt, the teen charlatan masqueraded as an businessman when he swiped a used Lexus from a South Side dealership.

Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Berman sentenced Richardson to three years' probation in July 2009 for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. He was also ordered to undergo therapy and a month of home confinement.

Richardson also had pleaded guilty to false impersonation of a police officer but did not face additional punishment for that lesser charge.

However, it was only a matter of time before Richardson was before Berman again for violating terms of his home confinement by lying to probation officers and Berman.

"I've given [him] chance after chance after chance," Berman said before sentencing Richardson to nearly three months in the Illinois Department of Corrections in September 2009.

Then in March of last year, Richardson was sentenced to juvenile prison for pushing his mother and stealing his uncle's car while the older man watched television.

At the time, officials with the State's Attorney's Juvenile Justice Bureau said Richardson could be held in a state facility for juveniles until he's 21 -- but also noted that he could be released earlier for good behavior.