Logan Malik was a police officer in Washingtonville, Ohio who was convicted of falsely portraying himself as a U.S. Marshal to several members of the public over the course of one evening. First, he told a store employee at a Macy’s jewelry counter in Boardman, Ohio that he was part of a fugitive task force and was looking for four or five “skinheads” with tattoos on the backs of their heads. The employee would later testify at Malik’s trial that he appeared “jittery” and “shaky.” He was dressed in a white polo shirt, jeans, and had a local police department badge, which she found inconsistent with his representation that he was a U.S. Marshal. Customers within earshot became fearful and left the store. When the employee summoned her manager, Malik repeated his story, still acting nervously. He failed to produce any identification but provided the employee and manager with his name and phone number, asking them to contact him directly if they saw the fugitives.
Malik then repeated his story to the front desk manager at a nearby Holiday Inn, where he identified himself as “U.S. Marshal Malik.” The manager was suspicious of Malik’s appearance and was convinced that he was not a U.S. Marshal when Malik wrote down his personal contact information in lieu of a business card. The manager called 911 when Malik left to report the incident.
Malik also approached a group of teenagers in a parked car at a Sheetz gas station. He repeated his story, and asked the teenagers to call him if they saw the fugitives he was pursuing but failed to leave a phone number. One of the teenagers called 911 shortly thereafter. Police responded to the Sheetz gas station, finding Malik in a police vest, and standing near a vehicle. He entered the vehicle, drove out of the parking lot, and police initiated a traffic stop. They found two police badges and a firearm on Malik’s person, and found a baton, handcuffs, and a taser in his vehicle. Police were able to confirm that he was employed by a local police department.
Malik was arrested and charged with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 912, which prohibits impersonating an officer of the United States, and stood trial. A witness from the U.S. Marshals Service testified that Malik was never employed by his department, and that Marshals working on a fugitive task force typically wear clothing and carry credentials identifying them as such. Malik was convicted after a two-day trial and sentenced to 30 days in prison, followed by one year of supervised release.
Malik appealed, arguing, among other things, that he was prosecuted for constitutionally protected speech in violation of the First Amendment. The Court noted that “we have previously rejected the general point Malik makes today. Impersonating the police, we have noted, is not protected speech.” The Court observed that the United States Supreme Court distinguished between unlawful statutes that punish “pure speech” for its own sake, and those which prohibit speech which constitutes “fraud or speech integral to criminal conduct.” The latter category – the Supreme Court held – was lawful under the First Amendment, and even specifically cited the statute under which Malik was charged as an example. The Court provided that “the criminal conduct at issue is not the falsity of the statement but debasing the ‘integrity of Government processes.’ That describes today’s case, where Malik’s conduct essential to the crime of conviction was speech identifying himself, falsely, as a U.S. Marshal. His prosecution, therefore, is not at odds with the First Amendment’s robust protections on speech.” Malik’s conviction was upheld.
United States of America v. Logan Daniel Malik, Case No. 23-3819, 2024 WL 1075070 (6th Cir., 2024).