Villa Park man charged with impersonating cop in Elgin
A 43-year-old Villa Park man who police say was carrying a handcuff case, a silver badge and pepper spray outside a downtown Elgin bar is accused of impersonating a police officer.
Henry J. Cooper, Jr., of the 500 block of North Ardmore Drive, faces the felony impersonation charge and felony possession of a controlled substance after officers responded about 10:50 p.m. June 2 to a report of a suspicious man outside the Redwood Inn, 118 W. Chicago St., according to an Elgin police report.
Officers saw Cooper standing on the south side of the Chicago Street bridge with the handcuff case on his belt and the other police items, the report said.
Police determined that Cooper was wanted on a Carpentersville police warrant for violation of an order of protection and searched him. The report said they found a pocketknife, a metal "one-hitter" for smoking marijuana, and a bottle containing four pills, the type of which was redacted in the police report.
A woman who talked to Cooper outside the Redwood Inn told police that Cooper said he was a "cop" with badge number 56, the report said. Cooper told police that he gave the woman three cigarettes and said he was a "security enforcement officer" who was was hired at 10 a.m. that day for $7 an hour by the bar, the report states.
Police talked to Redwood Inn management, who said Cooper didn't work there. While being booked, Cooper offered to help with the paperwork and wanted to buy a police-issue bulletproof vest and a body camera, according to the report.
Cooper also faces charges of felony possession of a controlled substance and was ticketed for the possession of drug paraphernalia, according to police and Kane County court records.
Cooper is being held at the Kane County jail on $30,000 bail, meaning he must post $3,000 to be released while the charges are pending.
If convicted of the most severe charge, he faces a punishment ranging from probation to up to three years in prison. Cooper was arrested in June 1993 in Carpentersville on a felony charge for possession of controlled substance. He pleaded guilty in 1994 and was sentenced to 30 days of home confinement and two years of probation, records show.