To some people, Richard Kudlik possessed the macho allure of movie star Tommy Lee Jones' portrayals of a deputy US marshal on a manhunt.
They say he had the badge, raid jacket, flashing lights on his pickup truck, even a gun. It all felt real, right down to his earnestness, said one ex-girlfriend, Pamela Brown.
"Honesty and loyalty is what he always tried to project," Brown said.
But a chorus of angry women say Kudlik was only acting.
Kudlik, 43, was arrested at his home on Wednesday after Brown and other women outed him earlier this month on a Web site featuring a wanted poster. The site calls him a "lying, cheating US Marshal impersonator" and reveals his true identity as a long-married maintenance man.
He pleaded not guilty to having a counterfeit US Marshals Service badge and was released on US$5,000 bail. A telephone call to his attorney was not immediately returned on Wednesday.
Brown, a 39-year-old Web site designer and mother of a teenage daughter, said she began dating Kudlik last year after meeting him through a friend. She said he soon had her convinced he was deeply in love with her -- and with his position in law enforcement.
"He spoke about his job all the time," she said in a phone interview. "He always said he was going on secret missions, needing to fly here and there to pick up prisoners."
Brown bought the stories until she received an anonymous e-mail warning: "The man you're dating is not who he says he is."
She tracked down Kudlik's wife, who told her on the phone they had been married 17 years.
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