Posted on 04/18/2009 9:26:11 PM PDT by rxsid
Key witness in passport fraud case fatally shot
A key witness in a federal probe into passport information stolen from the State Department was fatally shot in front of a District church, the Metropolitan Police Department said yesterday.
Lt. Quarles Harris Jr., 24, who had been cooperating with a federal investigators, was found late Thursday night slumped dead inside a car, in front of the Judah House Praise Baptist Church in Northeast, said Cmdr. Michael Anzallo, head of the department's Criminal Investigations Division.
Cmdr. Anzallo said a police officer was patrolling the neighborhood when gunshots were heard, then Lt. Harris was found dead inside the vehicle, which investigators would describe only as a blue car.
Emergency medics pronounced him dead at the scene.
City police said they do not know whether his death was a direct result of his cooperation with federal investigators.
"We don't have any information right now that connects his murder to that case," Cmdr. Anzallo said.
Police say a "shot spotter" device helped an officer locate Lt. Harris.
...
The Washington Times reported April 5 that contractors for the State Department had improperly accessed passport information for presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain, which resulted in a series of firings that reached into the agency's top ranks.
One agency employee, who was not identified in documents filed in U.S. District Court, was implicated in a credit-card fraud scheme after Lt. Harris told federal authorities he obtained "passport information from a co-conspirator who works for the U.S. Department of State."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/apr/19/key-witness-in-passport-fraud-case-fatally-shot/
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
He wasn’t a Lt., his actual name was Leiutenant.
Correct.
bump
When this happened did the Wash Times report get reported in the MSM?
That was fast. Links have been scrubbed.
But they cannot scrub our collective brain.....yet.
There’s a HUGE piece of the story missing IMO.
Better late than never:
State Department employee pleads guilty to identity theft
The name of the convict is Rodney P. Quarles Jr.. Note that his name and the murder victim's names both contain "Quarles."
Hi Matt!
Notice, the ABC7 link I quoted has been scrubbed. And your link article just doesn’t wash, does it?
Doesn’t wash with what? It seems the two criminals in question were lower level fraudsters rather than political operatives. But who knows? Dead men tell no tales.
Doesn’t wash imo because how could two lower level fraudsters access the information they did. I think the real perp (the political operative)is still laughing.
The article I linked tells how Rodney P. Quarles Jr. had access to the State Dept. records. But it is possible that all his queries were meant to cover up the queries into the VIPs (in other words bury a few queries with hundreds).
Nope. His name was Leiutenant Quarles Harris, Jr. (1983-03-07 to 2008-04-18, SSN 578-11-2856).
Yet another moron reporter driving by a story.
That's the case. Harris was just a low-grade identity thief.
Officer William A. Smith, Jr., of the MPD, stopped Harris for having an illegally tinted windshield. He agreed to a search of his vehicle, during which one of cops noticed a ziplock bag sticking out of Harris's jacket pocket. It turned out to contain grass. He was arrested.
Subsequently, they found him to be carrying 21 credit cards not his own and copies of eight passport applications not his own, in addition to the grass. See Officer Smith's complaint (interestingly, he, too botched Harris's first name).
Harris reportedly agreed to cooperate in the investigation. It's likely his accomplices neutralized him for that reason.
But who knows? Dead men tell no tales.
But they can embarrass birthers.
If I am reading the articles correctly, there are two people involved with similar names. Please see the article I posted at post 150, which spells it out.
So, we have a Rodney P. Quarles, Jr., and a late Leiutenant Quarles Harris, Jr., both members of the same identity-theft ring operating at the USPS and the Passport Office. Were they perhaps relatives? Quite likely, I would guess. The ring operated in 2007 and 2008, but it took until late 2012 for Quarles to fall, Quarles Harris having been whacked years earlier.
The article slides abruptly from discussing Quarles to Quarles Harris. If there is any larger significance, the article fails to spell it out.
Imo there was a scam going on, but I fail to see how these low-level employees were able to gain access to the VIP passport details. Security surely couldn't be that poor?
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