No jail for fake Secret Service agent

A New Jersey man who slipped past security Jan. 2 at the Department of Health and Human Services by pretending to be a U.S. Secret Service agent was sentenced to three years' probation Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in the District.

Frederick J. Nickerson, 47, flashed a badge to security guards and was not turned away until he was found making calls from his cell phone from the sixth-floor office suite of Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was not present, authorities said.

He entered a plea agreement with prosecutors, who dropped a charge that Nickerson also faked his way into Metropolitan Police Department headquarters on Dec. 31 by claiming to be a Beverly Hills cop.

In court papers, U.S. authorities said a witness recognized Nickerson's face from photographs that had been circulated in the building as someone banned from the facility, and then recognized his voice from phone calls made by him late last year to HHS in which he made "irrational demands to see the secretary and other people in charge."

Nickerson also was turned away from FEMA Jan. 2 after posing as a Coast Guard officer, court papers said, while state prosecutors in Massachusetts said he previously pleaded guilty to trying to pose as a state police trooper to attend a U2 concert in September.

Nickerson had been jailed without bond since his arrest Jan. 6. He remains in custody because a D.C. Superior Court judge has revoked his probation for a previous, unrelated offense, according to the office of U.S. Attorney for the District Ronald C. Machen Jr.

Nickerson was convicted in 2009 in three cases of simple assault, stalking and destruction of property.

In his federal plea agreement, Nickerson agreed to turn over the following items in his possession.

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* Pentagon Force Protection Agency visitor stickers

• All National Disaster Medical System identification cards

• All Department of Defense Geneva Conventions identity cards and replicas

• Massachusetts Department of Public Health identification cards

• National Registry of Emergency Medical Technician cards

• D.C. Department of Health Emergency Medical Technician Certificate and all replicas

• Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency card

• American Heart Association Healthcare Provider card

• Onondaga County EMS Identification card

• Metropolitan Boston EMS Council Regional EMS Coordinator identification card

• American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support card

• Massachusetts Registered Health Officer License

• Massachusetts Emergency Medical Specialist badge

• EMS Official Business Placard

• Anthrax Briefing to Federal Agencies (dated 11/5/01)

• "10-90 Gold NBC Response Plan" book

• FEMA blue jacket

• Public Health Service Emergency Operations blue jacket

• Hawaiian Island Emergency Medical Services black jacket

• Syracuse NY EMS orange jacket

• U.S. Secret Service green hat

• U.S. Army Chem/Bio/Nuclear training disk

• Beverly Hills Police hat

• Metropolitan Police Department blank citation forms

• D.C. Diplomatic License Plate, No. "DPL 751"

• Norfolk County Sheriffs Office blue shirt

• White House Airlift Operations blue shirt

• U.S. Public Health Service camouflage jacket

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• RAF Police yellow jacket

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Public Health Service identification card

• U.S. Coast Guard MSD hat

• Sail Boston 92 EMS hat

• "Managing Hazardous Materials Incidents" notebook, volume II

• New Jersey EMT shield

• Blank Triage tags

• Knife and case

• All emergency response and disaster field guides and manuals

• "Biological Warfare Improved Response Program" book

• Department of State Diplomatic Security Service pin

• United States Marshal pin

• D.C. Fire & EMS blue shirt

• "Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies" Congressional Assessment (11/19/09)

• "Committee on Homeland Security Business Opportunities Manual" (March 2009)

• IFPA-Fletch Conference folder and contents

• Baltimore City Hazardous Materials Special Forces shirt

• "White House" folder and contents

• D.C. Department of Corrections identification card

• Eastern Ambulance badge

• Braintree Fire Department badge

• Boston Fire Department badge

• Bay State Ambulance badge

• Handcuffs

• Massachusetts EMS badge

• Metropolitan Police Department Official Business placard.

• Metropolitan Police Department Reserve Corps license plate

• Metropolitan Police Department Pullover Jacket

• United States Secret Service Binder

• Roll of Police Tap

• Special Police Patch

• Chicago Police Patch

• U.S.V.I. Police Patch

• Ontario Police Patch

• Toronto Police Patch

• U.N. Security Patch

• Sheriffs County Patch

• Toronto AuxilIary Police Patch

-- Spencer S. Hsu

(This post has been updated from its original.)