More charges against security provider, ex-cop accused in Minn. of impersonating officer while armed

A private security provider and former police officer has now been arrested and charged twice in the Twin Cities on allegations of driving aggressively — with emergency lights flashing and armed with a gun — in what had all the appearances of an unmarked squad.

Trevon James Mattson, 27, of Champlin, was pulled over by police in Rogers on July 25 after a driver alerted the State Patrol that he was being tailed on westbound Interstate 94 by a silver Chevy Tahoe with its overhead red, blue and amber lights illuminated.

Mattson was arrested and charged in Hennepin County District Court with impersonating a police officer while on the interstate in neighboring Maple Grove. He was released Monday, but a warrant was issued Friday for his arrest.

The latest charge comes about 11 months after Mattson was accused of a similar portrayal on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. He was arrested then as well and stands charged with carrying a gun in public without a state-issued permit, a gross misdemeanor, and with impersonating a police officer, a misdemeanor.

In both instances, according to law enforcement, the former police officer in Staples, Minn., and Sisseton, S.D., had a loaded gun within reach.

Investigators say the same form of deception was used one night in mid-June when Vance Boelter allegedly knocked on the doors of two Twin Cities-area state legislators and killed House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and seriously wounded Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette.

Boelter, 57, who founded a security company with cars and weapons but had no clients, was wearing a convincing police disguise, including a Taser, badge and black body armor, according to charges. Boelter was driving a dark SUV outfitted with emergency lights and opened fire on police officers when they found him at Hortman’s Brooklyn Park home, investigators say. He was arrested the next night and charged with murder and attempted murder.

“I think the police are more active because of the Boelter situation,” Rogosheske said.

It was nearly 10 months before Boelter’s arrest when Mattson’s driving behavior in a silver Ford Explorer late at night on a Minneapolis interstate caught the attention of a state trooper.

According to those charges:

At about 11:50 p.m. on Aug. 23, a trooper on routine patrol saw Mattson’s Ford SUV speeding on northbound I-35W and closing fast on a black passenger car.

The car’s driver moved to the right, apparently to allow the SUV to pass. However, the SUV “was following the lane changes the black passenger car was making. [The trooper] thought at the time that the Ford appeared to be an unmarked police vehicle preparing to affect a traffic stop on the black passenger car,” the criminal complaint read.

The trooper checked the SUV’s license plate and determined it was not a law enforcement vehicle, pulled it over near the 35th Street overpass and saw Mattson behind the wheel wearing “a security uniform that very closely resembled that of a police uniform,” the complaint continued.

Mattson, who had with him a body-worn camera, a loaded, holstered gun, and other gear associated with being a police officer, explained that he was trying to check the license plate on the car he was following to determine whether the plate was stolen.

The trooper asked Mattson for his permit to carry a gun, but he could not provide it. The trooper determined Mattson had no such permit and arrested him.

Mattson’s second arrest came on July 25, also on a Twin Cities interstate, according to a search-warrant affidavit filed Tuesday in District Court that cleared the way for police to seize the Chevrolet Tahoe he was driving that day.

According to the affidavit and Friday’s criminal complaint:

He was unsure whether the Tahoe was a police vehicle and chose not to yield. Mattson then opened a laptop, began talking on a handheld radio microphone and activated his siren.

“[Police] dispatch advised him not to pull over for the vehicle,” the complaint read.

The motorist pulled over to the shoulder, but Mattson kept going.

A Rogers police officer, aware of the report, spotted the Tahoe on westbound I-94 near Main Street and pulled it over. Again, Mattson had all the equipment carried by police, including a holstered loaded handgun. The Tahoe had police-style emergency lights, sirens and a front-end push bar.

Mattson told the officer he works in private security. State business records list him as owner of ActiveWatch USA.