BRENTWOOD — A Haverhill man has been indicted for allegedly posing as a teenage girl and then as a federal agent to rob a man in Salem.
John Ruth, 48, of 640 Primrose St. turned himself in to Salem police April 11, two months after police said he robbed a 25-year-old Haverhill man in an Ermer Road parking lot.
Ruth was recently indicted by a Rockingham Superior Court grand jury on charges of false impersonation, false imprisonment and theft by unauthorized taking.
Ruth is accused of posing as a 16-year-old girl on the Internet and convincing the Haverhill man to meet him at 15 Ermer Road, police said.
When the man showed up, Ruth allegedly blocked his vehicle in the parking lot so he couldn’t leave, police said.
Ruth ordered the man out of the vehicle and said he was a federal agent with a sex crimes task force. Ruth then frisked the man, taking $146, keys and his driver’s license, according to an indictment.
Ruth then ordered the man to leave, police said. He was arraigned in 10th Circuit Court and released on $20,000 cash bail.
If convicted, Ruth faces three and a half to seven years in prison and a $4,000 fine for false impersonation. The theft and false imprisonment charges are misdemeanors each punishable by up to a year in prison.
