While Joshua M. Culver’s plans and execution may have fallen short in the end, it wasn’t for lack of chutzpah. After a federal grand jury in the Northern District of Indiana returned an indictment on July 15, 2026, Culver was arrested in Colorado a little over a month later. He faces counts of falsely impersonating an officer of the United States, along with another for forging the signature of a judge and court seal. Not of a municipal court, mind you, but rather the signature of the U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Culver, who also went by “Maverick A. Young,” pretended to be several different types of federal employees over several months in 2025 and 2026 in Indiana, attempting to have criminal charges against him dismissed, gain access to protected information, and coerce an individual into helping him. He did so by adopting false roles, such as a National Security Agency agent and a Special Master enforcing orders of the United States Supreme Court. Despite his efforts to hoodwink and manipulate for personal gain, Culver instead only succeeded in gathering several federal charges against him. Given that Chief Justice Roberts isn’t likely to be sympathetic to his plight, Culver is currently being represented by the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Colorado for his next court appearance.
Not Exactly How Appeals Work
Perhaps Culver’s familiarity with the legal system (unwisely) emboldened him to try to solve his problems through trickery and deceit. He’d been fighting theft charges in a Grant County, Ind., court since 2019 before opting for a new and decidedly different approach.
According to the indictment, Culver began his fictitious career in the federal government on or around September 19, 2025, by calling the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office. Posing as an NSA agent, he attempted to use his false status to strongarm employees into giving him the location of his biological daughter and performing a welfare check, threatening to take adverse action against them if they didn’t comply. Around the same time, he further used his NSA disguise to attempt to compel someone into helping him by calling their place of work and insinuating that they were obstructing a child kidnapping case, threatening them with a federal felony charge.
A few days later, Culver decided to up his impersonation game by mixing in some forgery as well. In an attempt to get his Indiana criminal case dismissed, Culver allegedly sent the Superior Court in Grant County an Order of Dismissal with Prejudice for his charges. It included a forged federal judge’s signature, that of Chief Justice Roberts, accompanied by a counterfeit US Supreme Court Seal (which, in Culver’s case file, shows that the court did indeed receive an Order of Dismissal from “The Supreme Court of the United States).
Culver kept the same lofty level of higher jurisprudence going in January 2026, once again assuming a new (fake) federal position. Pretending to be a Special Master appointed by the Supreme Court, Culver attempted to force judges and employees of the Lake County Superior Court into dismissing criminal cases and altering vital records. He followed up on this attempt on February 2 with a letter “from” the Director of Tailored Access Operations (part of the NSA) demanding, under “federal directive,” that a pending criminal case against Culver be dismissed and all warrants quashed because Culver was a “federal asset.”
Next on His Behalf, the FBI and DHS
While some might be tempted to give Culver points for ingenuity and creativity, the authorities were not amused by his efforts. He’s facing four counts of falsely impersonating a U.S. officer or employee.
Culver is also charged with a single count of the use of a forged federal judge’s signature and a counterfeit U.S. Supreme Court Seal. The five counts carry a combined statutory maximum of 17 years in federal prison if convicted. If nothing else, it would give him plenty of time to work on perfecting his version of Chief Justice Roberts’ signature.
