It is a widely celebrated fact that children play pretend games. From “pirates” and “princesses” to “cops and robbers” or “ninja turtles”, the repertoire is huge. But there comes a time in life when pretend games stop being acceptable and start getting you into trouble. Especially the “cops” part of “cops and robbers”, as 17-year-old Benjamin Lane Lesko recently experienced.
According to Bill Anderson, a sales manager at Cueter Chrysler dealership in Ypsilanti Township, it happened like this:
The dealership received a call from Lesko. He claimed to be an FBI agent who had recently moved to the area and needed a car. He asked for the dealership to send a vehicle to pick him up at the hotel where he was staying, as he wanted to test drive a few cars. But once he arrived at the dealership, things began to unravel.
When asked to supply his driver’s license before test driving a vehicle, which is standard procedure, he didn’t have one. The employee who was dealing with him noticed the gun on his hip and immediately notified Anderson. Anderson said that the young “FBI agent” was not to drive a vehicle under any circumstances.
But while the dealership employee had stepped out to discuss the situation with their boss, Lesko took the keys for a 2015 Dodge Charger off the desk and stole the car. He fled in the vehicle and made it all the way to the Toledo, Ohio area before being involved in an accident.
He once again presented himself as an FBI agent to local authorities at the site of the accident, but was taken into custody none-the-less. The car, which was damaged and rendered inoperable, was impounded.
Prosecutors have chosen to dismiss any charges
Lesko, is charged with a single count of unlawful driving away of an automobile, which is a felony under Michigan law. However, luckily for him, the prosecutor’s office chose not to charge him for impersonating an officer, which is also a felony. Additionally, the Lucas County juvenile prosecutors in Ohio have chosen to dismiss any charges.
He was arraigned in the 14th District Court recently, and court records show that this wasn’t his first brush with the law by any stretch of the imagination. His former juvenile charges include impersonating a peace officer to commit crime, larceny in a building, stalking, cruelty to animals, receiving and concealing stolen property, accosting a child for immoral purposes, false personation of public officer, unlawful driving away of an auto, indecent exposure, distributing obscene matter, using a computer to commit a crime. Records show that several other crimes were dismissed in plea deals.
This young man is obviously in need of some very serious assistance in life. If convicted, which unfortunately seems very likely, he faces up to five years in prison. We can only hope that this first encounter with the actual prison system, as opposed to short stays in a juvenile detention facility, is a wake up call for him. Being in trouble with the law can potentially ruin what could have been a bright future. This is why we always recommend getting a good defense attorney whenever a juvenile is in trouble with the law.