Student gets 60 days for forged ID

A York College student who had modified his minivan to look like a law enforcement vehicle and had a cache of weapons in his home has been sentenced to sixty days in jail for illegally possessing a forged federal agent's identification card.
The defendant, Stephan M. Kishore, 20, was arrested last August after being stopped by Port Authority police for a minor traffic infraction while leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport. At the time, he presented police with a fake Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) identification card and an ICE shield.
Kishore pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument before Queens Criminal Court Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt, who sentenced him to sixty days in jail and three years' probation.
The defendant, who is originally from Trinidad, has been placed on &#8220hold” by federal officials since his arrest on August 28.
The District Attorney said that, at about 12:21 p.m. on August 28, the defendant's 1993 Mercury minivan was pulled over near Exit 9 of the Van Wyck Expressway after he was observed by Port Authority police changing lanes without signaling. Upon stopping the vehicle, police observed a large police decal prominently displayed on the rear door and what appeared to be red and blue police strobe lights on the front dashboard, as well as two Department of Homeland Security (DHS) parking placards.
The defendant handed the police officer a black wallet containing a DHS Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) identification card and an ICE shield. When asked the question if he was the police, the defendant replied, &#8220Yes, and I'm on duty.”
However, a further examination of the defendant's shield revealed the wording &#8220Copshop.com, Collectible Badge, Not For Official Use” on the back. The defendant also provided the police officer a New York State driver's license on which the expiration date of his temporary visitor's status had been fraudulently altered with a red pen from August 2005 to August 2006.
The defendant then admitted that he was not a law enforcement officer and that he had made the placards and the DHS identification card on his home computer. The defendant also admitted that he had templates for numerous law enforcement agency insignias and that he had numerous federal and local identification cards, as well as two stun guns, two BB guns and two starter pistols in his bedroom at home.
On the evening of August 28, police executed a court-authorized search warrant prepared by the District Attorney's Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau on the defendant's Bronx bedroom. Once inside, police recovered two stun guns, two BB guns and two starter pistols, as well as a laptop computer containing numerous templates for State and Federal law enforcement insignias and credentials, a laminator with accompanying plastic and blank plastic identification cards.
Also recovered were 32 federal law enforcement identification cards - including DHS, the United States Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation - as well as two pilot license cards, one press identification card and five weapon permits.
In addition, police recovered eleven federal and local law enforcement shields - including four New York City Police Department shields, three Department of Education shields, one Department of Corrections shield, one New York State locksmith shield, one United States Customs shield and one Shield Radiation Safety Officer shield.