A Calhoun County native was convicted on two counts of impersonating an officer in Bruce City Court Wednesday evening.
Jockey C. Justice was found guilty before Judge Ben Suber and fined $647.25 on each count. Justice, who was represented by attorney Dave Rozier of Oxford, suggested he would appeal following the verdict.
Jockey C. Justice
The charges stem from a pair of instances earlier this year when Justice visited area churches claiming to be an officer with Homeland Security and giving lectures on how to respond to a potential assault, such as the June 2015 incident in Charleston, South Carolina where nine members of a church were shot to death.
Bruce Police Chief Stan Evans said he received a call from a local church informing him about Justice's appearance. Within the next week, Justice appeared at Bruce Chapel where Evans was in the audience.
“He saw me and didn’t make any claims that day of being an officer because I was there,” Evans told The Journal in June. “But he did speak and gave a lot of bad advice. I addressed the church after he left.”
Evans said after talking to Justice he thought that might be the end of it, but less than a week later he received word he had visited another church.
“He comes to these churches wearing SWAT like fatigues, perhaps even a bullet-proof vest, with a gun and a badge,” Evans said. “It’s a security badge, not affiliated with any kind of law enforcement. He claims he’s a private investigator but he’s never worked for any law enforcement agency.”
Justice said he’s visited with more than 700 churches, but denied claiming he was with Homeland Security, instead saying he was with Home and Church Security.
This wasn’t the first impersonating an officer charge filed against him. The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department, years ago, charged Justice with using blue lights in his vehicle to pull people over.