In tomorrow’s hour-long season finale of A&E’s “Manhunters,” the US Marshals of the Regional Fugitive Task Force (RFTF) put taxpayers’ dollars to good use by cleaning up the streets of America.
In the first part of the finale, Detective Rasheen “Pep” Peppers leads Inspector Danny Potucek and Investigator Matthew Testa on a hunt for a cold-blooded murderer who is accused of killing his best friend. When the suspect’s trail leads the Marshals a long way from home, they soon realize nothing about this hunt is going to come easy.
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Created in 2002 by Congressional mandate, the members of the RFTF track down criminals all over the United States.
“Somebody has to keep check on our backyard and catch the dangerous, violent criminals operating here at home,” says Commander Lenny DePaul.
DePaul, a Navy veteran and former Secret Service agent, is in charge of the New York-New Jersey RFTF, the first of 16 nationwide. With more then 300 officers from 90 different Federal, State and local agencies, DePaul and his team are able to make up to 5,000 arrests a year.
“We are a 24-hour operation,” he says. “We bring in over 100 fugitives a week and we have leads coming in from all over the world.
“We are a force multiplier, a piece of a very big puzzle.”
In the second part of the season finale, recently promoted Deputy Mike Romani (now Senior Inspector) is on the hunt for a suspect with an extensive criminal history that includes sexual assault and weapons charges. With the help of Deputy Michelle “Michy” Mendez and Commander DePaul, Romani proves just how he earned his new corner office.
“We try to stay on top of the game and do our homework,” says Romani. “It’s a lot of paperwork, but it’s due diligence.”
Romani was also leading the team on the morning I joined the RFTF on the search for a rapist hiding out in the Bronx. But this is not a hunt you’ll get to see on TV.
No cameras were rolling in the early morning hours when the Marshals assembled in sub zero weather on the corner of 181st Street, replete with guns, badges and numerous layers of clothing.
Romani outlined the case for the group that included Marshals DePaul, Peppers, and Potucek, as well as Senior Parole Officer Vinny Senzamici, and Detective Roxanne Lopez.
“It’s great, we pick each other’s brains, everyone brings something to the group,” Lopez says as she straps me into an oversized flack jacket. “We’re all one big family.”
The Marshals were hopeful, but realistic. They had already spent five months searching for the elusive “perp,” who used numerous aliases to evade police.
“Stuff like this is hit or miss,” said DePaul as he jumped in his tinted SUV, featuring cold coffee and handcuffs in the cup holder.
“You just never know,” he says. “So everyday we just hit the ground running.”
Over the next five hours, the team and I “hit the streets.” We shuttled back and forth between the Bronx – where the suspect’s girlfriend and six of their seven children lived – and Manhattan’s Upper East Side – where the suspect spent his days delivering newspapers to street vendors.
Sitting in traffic, DePaul fiddles with his handcuffs. “They’re rusty,” he says. “We need to get them some work!”
Suddenly, the Marshals receive a call from the suspect’s girlfriend informing them that their fugitive had just arrived home. After a neck-breaking U-turn, we speed through the streets with flashing lights and sirens to the location where our manhunt began just hours earlier.
DePaul, Romani and Lopez were first on the scene and the arrest went down inside a local Chinese food restaurant, without a fight.
The suspect denied knowing anything.
With the fugitive in custody, the Marshals turned their attention to more important matters – lunch. The team reassembled; this time at a local diner across the street from the 42nd police precinct.
“I’m happy,” Lopez says. “When I came out this morning I didn’t expect to pick him up.
“But that’s what makes police work interesting.”
DePaul nods in agreement. “We have the best of the best looking for the worst of the worst.”