'DREAM GIRL' BRINGS DISAPPOINTMENT... AND MAN'S ARREST

A Los Angeles man dreamed of finding a near-Hollywood actress in Cape Girardeau, but all he got was disappointment and arrested on criminal warrants, police said.

Thomas E. Butler, 29, had struck up a relationship with a Cape Girardeau woman over the phone via a dating service and decided to take a bus here last week to meet her, police Detective Jimmy Smith said.

The woman's father told Smith that his daughter had racked up long-distance charges of nearly $1,000 although the woman claims it was much less.

Butler told police he was anxious to meet the woman since she told him she resembled Christina Applegate, the 27-year-old actress who played Kelly Bundy in the sitcom "Married With Children."

Butler was disappointed, Smith said. "She looked nothing like that," he said.

Butler already had purchased a bus ticket to return to Los Angeles, but then last Thursday he ran into police.

Smith and another policeman were seeking a man wanted on a municipal warrant in the 100 block of South Lorimier Street when they noticed Butler. He was hanging around behind an apartment building as the officers walked down an alley. When Butler noticed that the officer with Smith was wearing a police uniform he raised his hands in the air.

"We hadn't done anything or said anything, and the guy just raises his hands," Smith said.

When the officers spoke with Butler he identified himself with various names and could not remember his Social Security number. So Smith asked him to accompany him to the police station, and Butler went voluntarily.

Police took Butler's fingerprints and sent them to the FBI for verification of a possible criminal history. They then waited. After Butler had waited with police four and one-half hours without results, Smith said they allowed him to leave with friends.

Without criminal charges, police could not keep Butler, Smith said.

"We knew he was wanted, but we didn't have a legal reason to hold him," he said.

One of Butler's Cape Girardeau friends was known to police and is on probation. If police needed to find Butler, they were sure they could do so through his friend, Smith said.

Last Thursday evening the FBI sent back a report identifying Butler, who was wanted for escaping from jail in Clay County and by the U.S. Marshal's Service for perjury. Butler had been a government informant in a murder-for-hire case and had perjured himself in federal court, Smith said.

Butler had numerous aliases, including "Joe B. Haley," the name he originally had given to Smith.

About 8:30 p.m. last Thursday, Smith went looking for Butler and found him with friends in a truck near where he was seen earlier. This time Butler ran.

With assistance from other officers, Smith found Butler hiding under a nearby car.

After Smith reported Butler's arrest, he received surprised inquiries from federal law enforcement agents. "They wanted to know how we located this guy," Smith said.