“60 Minutes” reports on impostor drug agent
Dave Marner, managing editor of the Gasconade County Republican in Owensville, Mo., sent us an email touting a story on “60 minutes.”
“60 Minutes” this past Sunday examined the tale of Bill A. Jakob, who was arrested after fooling authorities and posing as a federal drug agent in Gerald, Mo. Marner’s paper investigated and broke the story.
“This was certainly the biggest, weirdest, most important news story I’ve ever been involved with in nearly 30 years of being in this game,” Marner said.
Here’s a link to the “60 Minutes” piece that aired Sunday evening. If you didn’t see it, it’s worth a watch. And here’s a story on CBSnews.com about the case.
“While working with Gerald, Mo., police he went on drug raids without search or arrest warrants,” Marner wrote in his invitation to watch. “At least 17 area residents have filed civil law suits. Jakob pleaded guilty in September to 23 felony counts from a federal grand jury indictment regarding this case and faces up to 6 years in federal prison (took a plea bargain).”
The “60 Minutes” segment is reported by Katie Couric.
Todd C. Frankel did some excellent reporting on the case for the Post-Dispatch.
Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
There are several outrageous aspects regarding Mr. Jakob’s interview with Katie Couric of 60 Minutes.
One comes during his comments towards the end of the interview. Jakob states that he is proud of what he did to clean up the town, and that he is going to jail for arresting drug dealers who aren’t themselves going to jail. Katie Couric points out that that is not why he is going to jail, and Jakob replies that this is in fact all that he did. This shows that Jakob actually has no feelings of remorse for his actions. He obviously believes that since he was arresting people for breaking laws, he did not need to be concerned with their rights. In fact, his violation of the civil rights of the people he arrested is a far worse crime than the drug dealing crimes of which they were accused. Even the worst criminal offender has rights established by the U.S. Constitution, and these rights simply cannot be denied, regardless of the nature of their crimes.
Another example of Jakob’s reckless disregard of individual rights is evident when Couric asks him if he allowed prisoners to contact a lawyer. He declares that he did not need to, because if they asked for a lawyer he would stop questioning them, and prisoners are in his opinion only allowed a lawyer to be present while questioning. In fact, a prisoner must be allowed access to a lawyer regardless of whether questioning is being performed or not. His hard facial expression during this exchange is especially revealing, and is probably more familiar to the persons that he illegally questioned than the pained look he affects during much of the interview.
These are only two examples of instances when Jakob’s true outlook on the nature of his crimes becomes evident. I hope that during his sentencing on December 19 the judge attempts to instill him with some understanding of the seriousness of what he did, although with such a self-consumed prevaricator and fraud as Mr. Jakob it is doubtful that anything other than a maximum sentence will get through to him.