Henry Terry, 24, was a con man and a scammer who deceived nearly everyone in a Long Island neighborhood into believing he was a cop. He gained a reputation as a friendly policeman who hit the streets each day, in uniform, to supposedly make the neighborhood a safer place for its residents to live. Some days he played the part of a police sergeant; other days he was a parole officer. He was known to pass out a fake business card that labeled him a district commander of a police unit that did not exist. He was quite the charmer—he even duped his roommate into believing that he was a cop. He also wore 9/11 commemorative patches on his fake uniform.
"He had me fooled the whole time," said a young man who shared an apartment with Terry. "He told me he was a state police officer….He was doing police duties. He would pull people over, but never wrote tickets."
"He had the kids idolizing him like he was a super police officer," said one of Terry's neighbors. "He would come out in his uniform every day, like he was going to work. He would flash his lights for the kids. He would let them play with the siren."
In actuality, Henry Terry was an unemployed convicted criminal who was on probation for arson, and he went out every day using his fake uniform, fake gun, fake car, fake badge and handcuffs to shake down drug dealers, hookers, and anyone else from whom he could get a payoff. He was very convincing, and he reportedly made significant money from his scams.
"He always had stories," said another neighbor. "It was like watching an episode of 'Cops.'" The neighbor said that Terry entertained the locals with his stories about his busts, arrests, and the supposed heroism that went along with his made-up actions.
Although he typically drove a late-model Ford Crown Victoria, outfitted with lights, siren, and a public address system, he was known to sometimes commandeer a vehicle for "police business." On one occasion Terry told a neighborhood resident that he needed the resident's vehicle, a 2005 Hummer, for police business. The resident turned the Hummer over to him after Terry told him that he would be paid for its use. He carried out a similar scam when he told a victim that he needed his Toyota Land Cruiser for use in an ongoing FBI investigation. After the resident turned it over to him, he sold it and kept the money.
Using 10 cellular telephones and sometimes wearing a bulletproof vest, Terry nearly always carried with him an official-looking clipboard—complete with forms that looked real—and took detailed notes whenever he pulled someone over or was otherwise "investigating" a crime that had occurred. Terry got away with this particular scam for months, and wasn't busted until the owner of the Toyota Land Cruiser that Terry had commandeered reported him to the real police. The report eventually got Terry busted, in January 2007, and the police would ultimately learn that his alleged string of crimes went back at least two years.
Although he was at first only charged with impersonating a police officer and grand larceny, the ensuing investigation turned up the fact that Terry had also kept prisoners locked up in a phony police station; he allegedly set a live cat on fire; and also allegedly raped teenage boys. He also supposedly bound a prisoner to a chair with duct tape and terrorized him with a spray can and a lighter.
When all was said and done, the investigation turned up evidence of other "officers" who dressed in uniforms and worked with Terry out of a five-room office in Hempstead, Long Island that Terry had used as his "jail," who were prepared to testify against him if Terry's case made it to trial. Terry also allegedly stole a vehicle and money from his former landlord so that he could have resources to investigate the Aryan Brotherhood, and purportedly embezzled $120,000 in cash and credit cards from a retired city bus driver so that he could help protect the man from Freemasons. Terry was also accused of raping a woman who, when it came time to go to trial, refused to testify against him.
By the time the real police investigation was completed, Terry faced a 54-count indictment that could have netted him 132 years in prison if convicted on all counts. However, on Friday, May 30, 2008, Terry and his lawyers reached a plea agreement with Suffolk County authorities.
"He walked in today and was willing to admit to what he said he was guilty of all along," said Brian Browns, one of Terry's attorneys. "He is full of remorse."
In the agreement that was reached, Terry pleaded guilty before Suffolk County Court Judge C. Randall Hinrichs to first-degree criminal impersonation of a police officer, aggravated cruelty to animals, first-degree coercion, third-degree criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and two counts of grand larceny for crimes that occurred between January 2005 and January 2007.
Terry is scheduled to be sentenced on July 27, 2008. He could receive between 20 ½ to 40 years in state prison, but could be eligible for parole in slightly less than 10 years under current sentencing guidelines.
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