A $100,000 arrest warrant was issued out of Fairbanks earlier this week after Fairbanks police contacted William James Clark, 37, at the North Star Council on Aging.
The director of the facility became concerned after Clark, who she believed was mentally ill or a jail escapee, showed her a handgun. He reportedly was posing as a military police officer, but earlier this week the director would not say what exactly Clark was doing there.
Despite having warrants for his arrest in five other states, Fairbanks police let Clark go because he did not show up as a convicted felon in the statewide Alaska Public Safety Information Network and they did not check a national database until it was too late.
Shortly after the first story about Clark ran in Friday’s News-Miner, a hunter who believed he talked with Clark on Tuesday notified Fairbanks police.
The hunter met a man in military fatigues in the Wrangell Mountains who offered to help him go hunting.
“It just struck him as bizarre,” FPD Sgt. Eric Jewkes.
The man in fatigues mentioned going to Deadhorse, and North Slope Borough police found Clark at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel on Friday afternoon. He was taken into custody without incident.
Deadhorse, located more than 400 miles north of Fairbanks, is accessible by the largely unpaved Dalton Highway, popularized on the third season of “Ice Road truckers.” Aside from the hotel, there is little in the unincorporated community that isn’t geared toward workers on the nearby oil fields.
Jewkes did not know if Clark was in military fatigues at the time of his arrest.
Fairbanks police also are investigating Clark as a suspect in several cases of bad checks being passed off around the city. Similar fraud charges are anticipated in Juneau soon.
Clark is expected to be flown back to Fairbanks within the next few days, Jewkes said.
The incident in Fairbanks was only the latest in a long line of bizarre cases involving Clark.
He was sentenced to five years in prison after he showed up at the scene of a 2002 fatal bridge accident in Oklahoma, identified himself as an Army captain and spent more than two days ordering around FBI agents and doing media interviews before the ruse was discovered.
A month after being released on probation in 2007, he called a Russian embassy claiming to be part of a U.S. Special Forces squad planning to assassinate Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Following that incident, Clark reportedly told investigators that he has no military experience and is mentally ill.
In February 2008, Seattle police pulled over Clark because his vehicle lacked license plates. A military uniform was found in the car and Clark claimed to be a military police officer but could provide no further documentation.
Clark’s most recent stint in jail ended in August 2009, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Earlier this week, a television station in Davenport, Iowa, reported that Clark is suspected of entering a local computer store in April and passing a bad check to purchase a laptop he claimed to need for a deployment to Afghanistan.
Photos and pictures making the rounds on military message boards also seem to place Clark at an Aug. 7 Anchorage gun show, during which he reportedly was looking to purchase ATVs for other fictitious soldiers.
Clark reportedly was wearing a captain’s uniform with badges indicating he had special forces, Ranger and Airborne qualifications.
Contact staff writer Chris Freiberg at 459-7545.
http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/stolen-valor-act-is-declared-unconstitutional-by-circuit-court/
It makes the news more fun to read! ;-)
I previously stated "Adults" instead of Seniors.
He opened the door for election workers on Sunday,"looked like he was living there." State Law requires a Security BACKROUND check for all people who work with Children or Adults. Was he cleared by the State, or pehaps because he was so nice that procedure was overlooked. BIG--BIG PROBLEM.
Together, they would certainly make a great team of super heroes.