Jerky Boy

From the Bushman to Frank Chu, this city has a vast and dazzling array of kooks. To this collective, we humbly propose the addition of Damisi Carter. The 34-year-old former limo driver was in the habit of making crank calls — but not to just anyone. He crank-called cops — that is, until recently, when Superior Court Judge Cynthia Ming-Mei Lee sent him to prison after his latest brush with the law.

As a boy, Carter dreamed of becoming a police officer, according to his defense attorney, Floyd Andrews. But soon he began getting in trouble with the law; his record reveals a history of stalking, burglary, and domestic violence. Disappointed that his criminal record prevented him from becoming a cop, he apparently began harassing them instead. Police say he filed numerous complaints against officers using fake names such as Gregory Dowdell, a nonexistent employee of the International House of Pancakes.

In 2005, Carter called the S.F. sheriff's office, said he was a cop, and tried to obtain the work schedules of the deputies. Eventually convicted of stalking nine San Francisco sheriff's deputies, Carter received three years' probation.

In June, CHP officer V. Juarez pulled Carter over in South San Francisco for speeding. According to her report, after she issued him a ticket, he chased her in his car for about four miles, following her on and off Highway 101 near the airport. Juarez eventually sped off in response to another call. Minutes later, the CHP's call center received a phone call from one Roy Taylor, who claimed to be with the U.S. Marshals Service, asking to speak with Juarez. When she called back, Taylor told her he was Carter's uncle, that his nephew was crazy, and that he had once stalked a femalesheriff's deputy and set her car on fire.

A CHP records check revealed 14 outstanding restraining orders against Carter, while the U.S. Marshals had no record of an employee named Roy Taylor. The incident was a violation of Carter's probation; he was sentenced to three years in prison. From jail, he made several calls to the public defender's office, pretending to be his own father (from whom Carter is estranged, according to attorney Andrews) and trying to discuss the case.

Carter will be spending the holidays in San Quentin, where he still has access to a phone.