Nevada trooper charged in case of dual identity

Bill Gang

Tuesday, Aug. 4, 1998 | 10:51 a.m.

A Nevada Highway Patrol trooper has been charged by federal authorities with maintaining a dual identity in a case that hints at illicit gem dealings, Swiss bank accounts and international intrigue.

Monday's arrest of John Raymond Kennedy by U.S. State Department officials is on charges that he made false statements in 1994 to renew a passport he is alleged to have obtained in 1984 in the name of an Illinois man who committed suicide.

Kennedy, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Schiess, also has obtained a passport in his own name and there are indications he may hold others.

"He has a pattern of creating false identifications," Schiess told U.S. Magistrate Roger Hunt at a hearing late Monday to determine if Kennedy should remain in custody or be given his freedom until a trial.

Schiess said that Kennedy, 46, has bragged to friends of international traveling that cannot be documented on either his own passport or the phony one in the name of John Steven Staran.

The bragging included telling friends of international gem dealing and of having a home in Thailand, where his wife was born, the prosecutor continued.

Schiess noted that Kennedy, an NHP trooper since 1989, also told friends he planned to retire next year and spend much of his time in Thailand.

It is under Staran's name that Kennedy amassed more than 20 documents, including a California driver's license that was said to have been obtained on the California side of Lake Tahoe in 1994 when the highway patrolman was assigned to attend a governors' conference on the Nevada side.

Schiess argued to Hunt that Kennedy poses a flight risk because of his international connections, the possibility of other false identities and because he has $1 million worth of property in Illinois that is up for sale.

But the prosecutor did not oppose the defendant's release, asking only that he be required to post a $100,000 bond, give up any other passports he may hold and be restricted to Clark County.

But while the magistrate agreed there is a risk that Kennedy won't appear to face the felony charges, he released the defendant on an "unsecured" $100,000 bond. That means Kennedy didn't have to post any money and was freed a short time later from custody. But if he flees the government can pursue $100,000 of his assets.

Although Kennedy is restricted to Clark County, Hunt gave him permission to travel to Illinois and Utah for business purposes.

Hunt set an Aug. 21 preliminary hearing date, but Schiess indicated that he expects to present the case instead to a federal grand jury for indictment.

While court documents spell out the steps that led authorities to determine the passports of Kennedy and Staran were issued to the same man, there is no indication of what pushed special agents of the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to target the defendant.

Schiess declined to elaborate, citing departmental policy.

Court documents allege that on March 1, 1994, the Staran passport first obtained on July 12, 1984, was renewed by the National Passport Center in New Hampshire. Staran, who apparently also went by the name of John S. Staran Ruehrwein, was born on Feb. 26, 1950.

Kennedy, whose birth date is March 19, 1951, had obtained a passport in his own name on Aug. 10, 1988.

A comparison by the INS Forensic Document Lab on July 28 of handwriting samples on the two applications has determined that both were written by the same person and that the photos on both passports were of the same person, court documents allege.

Documents also indicate that on July 23, the state of Illinois provided evidence that Staran committed suicide on March 9, 1984, in Aurora, Ill.