Man faked death to avoid jail but typo gave him away
New York: A Long Island criminal defendant tried faking his death to avoid a jail sentence, but the phony death certificate his lawyer submitted had a glaring spelling error that made it a dead giveaway for a fraud, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
Robert Berger, 25, of Huntington, New York, now faces up to four years in prison if convicted in the alleged scheme. That’s in addition to pending sentences for earlier guilty pleas to charges of possession of a stolen Lexus and attempted grand larceny of a truck — punishment prosecutors say he was looking to avoid.
“It will never cease to amaze me the lengths some people will go to to avoid being held accountable on criminal charges,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a telephone interview.
Arraigned by video Tuesday because of the coronavirus pandemic, Berger pleaded not guilty to a single count of offering a false instrument for filing.
A judge set bail at USD 1 but ordered Berger back to jail because of his underlying cases. His next court date is scheduled for July 29.
A message seeking comment was left with a public defender who took over Berger’s case after the lawyer who submitted the suspicious death certificate claimed he’d been used as a pawn and had nothing to do with the alleged shenanigans.
Scheduled to be sentenced to a year in jail last October on the theft-related charges, Berger fled the state, while taking steps to convince his then-lawyer, prosecutors and the judge that he had killed himself — including allegedly using his fiance to pass along a bogus death certificate, prosecutors said.
At first glance, Berger’s purported death certificate looked like an official document issued by the New Jersey Department of Health, Vital Statistics and Registry, but there was one big problem: Registry was spelled “Regsitry,” prosecutors said. There were also inconsistencies in the font type and size that raised suspicions, they said.
The real New Jersey Department of Health, Vital Statistics and Registry confirmed that Berger’s death certificate was a fake, prosecutors said.
Berger was alive, but not entirely well. While supposedly dead, he’d been arrested in suburban Philadelphia on charges including allegations he provided a false identity to law enforcement and stole from a Catholic college.
He was sentenced in January upto a year in jail, according to Pennsylvania court records.
Berger’s case was reminiscent of one six years ago in which a former Coast Guard petty officer-turned-shoe salesman posed as a former military lawyer, soliciting clients and appearing in court. (AP)
Woman asked to remove ‘tampon’ in strip-search
Canberra: The Sydney Police have asked a young woman to remove her tampon during a strip-search, a law enforcement review has found.
It was among instances of police misconduct uncovered in an investigation into five controversial strip-searches across Sydney last year.
Most took place at music festivals and left those searched feeling humiliated and degraded, the report said.
New South Wales Police said it would consider the findings of the report.
The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission report called on the police force to apologise to one of the young women involved, and noted in another case that an officer had been suspended from duty, the BBC reported.
The cases were reviewed either after parents of the women complained or they received coverage in local media.
Questions over the legality of the searches – all targeting drugs – was a “recurring” issue, the report said.
It has added to public scrutiny of searching practices and calls for reforms.
In one instance in January 2019, police strip-searched two young women outside a Sydney casino – one was asked by an officer to remove her tampon.
A review of that incident “revealed a lack of clarity for [officers] regarding the lawfulness of such a request”, the report said.
That prompted a review of other cases where complaints had been made and no drugs had been found.
In another case, a young performer at the Secret Garden festival was ordered to pull down her underwear and bend over before being spoken to unprofessionally and laughed at by male officers, the report said.
A woman strip-searched at another festival was made to squat and cough and wasn’t given adequate privacy.
Under Australian law, police can only carry out strip-searches if “the seriousness and urgency of the circumstances” means it is reasonable and necessary to do so. They must also conduct the least invasive search possible. It is illegal to search genital areas or any body cavities. (IANS)