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When Robert Lane flashed a fake badge and, officials said, tried to pull over another driver who he believed had just cut him off, he had no idea he had picked the wrong man.

The other driver was an off-duty New York City police detective with 14 years on the job, according to court documents.

In his written statement to police after Lane's Tuesday arrest, NYPD Det. Anthony Garitta said he was driving to work westbound on Sunrise Highway in Bohemia about 1 p.m. when a blue Jeep Cherokee with emergency lights flashing in the windshield pulled up behind him.

Garitta, 34, said he pulled to the shoulder near Johnson Avenue but "got a bad feeling something wasn't right." He began to drive away in search of a more public spot to stop, he said, when Lane pulled up beside him and flashed a "mini version" of a police badge.

Garitta responded by showing his real shield and signaled Lane to pull over. Lane, 25, of Levittown, a new firefighter with no criminal record who had emergency lights installed in his Jeep, then drove off with Garitta in pursuit, officials said. Garitta used a cell phone to call 911 and gave the dispatcher Lane's license plate. A marked Suffolk police car located Lane on Sunrise Highway in Bohemia, where he was arrested.

Lane, of 50 Serpentine Lane, was charged with misdemeanor criminal impersonation, and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

At his arraignment in First District Court in Central Islip yesterday, Lane was dressed in gray slacks and a white button-down shirt. Judge John Iliou read from a statement he said Lane gave police: "I always wanted to be a cop but I failed the NYPD test."

Lane pleaded not guilty and was held on $2,500 cash bail or $5,000 bond.





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