Roundabout driver pretends to be a cop to pull over woman to ‘educate’ her, say police
A Richland man is accused of pretending to be a police officer when he pulled over a woman driver to “educate” her about driving in a roundabout.
Jason S. Munoz, 46, was driving a Range Rover at the intersection of Columbia Park Trail and Steptoe Street when a woman in a white minivan cut him off, court documents said.
He was angry and allegedly used the blue and red flashing lights installed behind his windshield and near his headlights to stop her about 2:30 p.m. Thursday, court documents said.
After she pulled over on Leslie Road, he came up to her driver’s side window and allegedly said, “I am an off-duty officer, you know why I pulled you over, don’t you?”
Munoz, dressed in a white sleeveless T-shirt with black sweatpants, then reportedly spent the next few minutes lecturing her on how to drive in a roundabout, court documents said.
The woman told investigators that she had rolled down the window only a few inches and felt she couldn’t leave.
Munoz drove away after a few minutes, and the woman called 911.
A Benton County deputy found the Range Rover parked at the Wrights Desert Gold Motel/RV Park. A man with a white sleeveless T-shirt and black sweatpants was standing nearby with his daughter.
The girl reportedly said, “Mommy told him to stop pulling people over,” court documents said.
A Richland police officer said the car was equipped with a small blue light in the middle and upper part of the windshield. There also were multiple small amber lights surrounding the car.
Munoz told the officer that the lights were for his security job at a farm near Prosser.
“He said, ‘That minivan cut me off in the roundabout, so I stopped the van and educated her,” Richland Officer Jeanine Ruby wrote in the affidavit of probable cause.
He claimed he only flashed his high beams at her and approached her when she pulled over. He allegedly said he knew he wasn’t supposed to have colored lights on his vehicle.
“Jason said he would show me the lights, and in doing so he opened the driver’s side door and I saw a set of holstered handcuffs on the inside of the door, a blue light on the upper windshield (and) a radar/scanner,” Ruby said.
“I asked Jason why he was pulling people over and he said he has an anger issue and needs to educate people,” said the court document.
He was booked into the Benton County jail on suspicion of first-degree criminal impersonation, a felony.
This story was originally published April 25, 2025 at 12:28 PM.