A Johnson County man who is charged with carrying a fake police badge said he never claimed to be a police officer, but needed the badge to conduct pedophilia investigations.

Rick Monsour, of Joshua, was arrested Friday and charged with carrying false police identification. He was released from the Johnson County jail on a $25,000 bond, police said.

It's a legal badge," he said. “They took it away from me and put me in jail for it. And that's terrible. It's a big mistake."

In an interview on his front lawn Thursday, Monsour said he founded a nonprofit group in March called “Victims Who Kick Your Ass” to help police conduct pedophilia investigations.

He is the group’s self-appointed president.



Monsour said he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child.



He said his group has not yet conducted any investigations in Texas but has worked on two in Louisiana.

In Joshua, police said they do their own investigations and arrested Monsour for carrying the authentic-looking badge.

"We just want all the citizens to know that Richard Monsour is not a part of the Joshua Police Department," said Lt. Leland Cheek.

Monsour was arrested after he allegedly went door-to-door, flashed his badge and asked residents about a woman who may have been a former girlfriend, police said.

The badge included the city's name and identified Monsour as an “investigator," Cheek said.

His arrest hardly came as a shock to his neighbors.

"It doesn't surprise me one bit,” said neighbor Nancy Green. “There's been more crazy things going on next door than anyone could imagine."

Green and other neighbors said Monsour moved into his house on Bentley Street several years ago claiming he was a victim of Hurricane Katrina.

But the more he talked, they said, the less they believed him.

“There’s just so many things he has told people that are totally untrue,” said neighbor Kim Smith.

“He’s said he was friends with the pope,” added her husband, James.

But he didn’t stop there, neighbors said.

“He’s told us that he’s in the FBI and the CIA,” James Smith said.

“He said he was in the KKK and proud of it,” Kim Smith said.

At various times, he also claimed to be a paramedic and a law student, neighbors said.

Monsour denied ever telling neighbors he was a federal agent, a lawyer or a Klan member.

“That’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t even know my neighbors.”

He said he did train to be an emergency medical technician but never actually worked as one.

Monsour said he knows the pontiff and receives Christmas cards from the Vatican. He said he does not consider the two of them to be friends.

He said he was stuck on the Louisiana coast for three weeks after Hurricane Katrina came ashore.

Monsour showed a Louisiana driver’s license with his name, picture and an address in Pearl River, which is where the hurricane first made landfall.