Pawnee County Man Accused Of Impersonating Officer Bonds Out Of Jail

The Pawnee County Emergency Management Director is out of jail on bond. Prosecutors charged Mark Randell with impersonating a police officer and arresting without proper authority.

Pawnee County Emergency Manager Denies Impersonating Officer 

Randell declined to appear on camera but says he has never pretended to be a police officer and the accusations against him are false. Prosecutors say the information in the affidavit, speaks for itself.

Documents show it took a little more than 10 minutes for Mark Randell to turn himself into jail and then bond back out. Prosecutors charged him with impersonating a police officer and making arrests without proper authority.

"The investigating agent was able to secure camera footage from scenes of incidents where these things occurred,” said OSBI Special Agent Adam Whitney.

The affidavit says Randell would show up at car accidents and crime scenes with a gun and badge. It also says there is audio from dash cameras of Randell admitting to pulling a person over for speeding, arresting a driver and picking up a handgun from a shots-fired scene and unloading the gun.

"We have completed the primary investigation and submitted that to the district attorney's office," said Whitney.

Randell says the information in the affidavit is not accurate and stems from an on-going issue with the Pawnee County Sheriff. Randell claims he has never pretended to be a police officer. He says he wears a badge and gun every day, but it says Emergency Management Director, not Police.

Randell says he has worked for Pawnee County since 2011 and this is an unfortunate situation for everyone involved.

Mark Randell  

The County Commissioner’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office both say they do not want to comment on the investigation while it is an open case.