March 24, 2023
A Shreveport man who pretended to be a police officer and terrorized a local woman was found guilty Thursday, March 23, 2023, in Caddo District Court.
Reginald Jamar Ruffins, 36, was charged with false personation of a peace officer, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and false imprisonment with a dangerous weapon in connection with an incident that occurred June 22, 2022.
The five-man, one-woman jury in District Judge Donald E. Hathaway’s court deliberated around 90 minutes before finding Ruffins guilty-as-charged on the criminal impersonation charge and guilty responsively to the false imprisonment charge.
On June 22, 2022, Ruffins went to the Cooper Road Plaza Apartments dressed in a ballistic vest, duty rig belt and multiple law enforcement style tools, such as handcuffs, a collapsible baton and a pepper spray gun. He entered an apartment and handcuffed the resident while he searched her dwelling for a gun she was legally allowed to possess. The woman’s children were present at the time. The woman believed Ruffins to be in law enforcement and testified that he presented himself as such. Ruffins had been to the apartment complex multiple times trying to secure a paid contract with the complex to do security patrols and presented himself as a member of SPD to the apartment complex manager.
When Ruffins returns to Judge Hathaway’s court April 5, 2023 for sentencing, he faces up to two years in prison with or without hard labor for the criminal impersonation. However, he has four prior felony convictions in Caddo and Bossier parishes, as well as a prior conviction in Texas for impersonation of a police officer. Therefore, the state will file a habitual offender bill against Ruffins. As a fourth-felony offender he faces a mandatory 20 year sentence at hard labor. He also faces up to six months in Caddo Correctional Center on the false imprisonment conviction.
Prosecutors were Assistant District Attorneys Courtney N. Ray and Jason W. Waltman. He was defended by Sean Landry.
The case was docket No. 390262.
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