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Man admits to filing his own death certificate
NY Journal News ^ | July 1, 2004 | TERRY CORCORAN

Posted on 07/08/2004 5:01:21 AM PDT by CSM

CARMEL — It's been written that death is a career move.

But for William Arksey, it was simply a way to avoid arrest.

Arksey, 53, formerly of Danbury, Conn., pleaded guilty yesterday in Putnam County Court to second-degree forgery, a felony, after admitting he filed his own death certificate to avoid arrest for skipping out on a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge in 1997.

It was only after Arksey recently served time in the Pennsylvania prison system that Putnam County authorities learned that the report of his demise — specifically, his death certificate — was, in fact, greatly exaggerated.

Arksey, who then went by the name of William Peterson, was arrested by state police in July 1997 on a charge of driving while intoxicated. After he failed to show up in court, a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Mary Jane MacCrae said that Arksey filed the bogus death certificate at Southeast Town Hall on Sept. 10, 1997.

"He did it with the intent to have it filed with the town of Southeast to get a criminal charge dismissed," MacCrae said.

Information was not available on what was listed as the cause of death.

Judge Robert E. Miller, who accepted Arksey's plea, appeared taken aback by his actions.

"This is really a unique trick you tried to play," Miller said. "You were just planning to make yourself dead?"

"I was a different person then, no pun intended," Arksey answered. "That was like eight years ago."

MacCrae then explained how Arksey's fingerprints resulted in the truth catching up to him. Pennsylvania authorities made copies of the fingerprints and checked them with a national database. That's how Putnam officials learned that Arksey was alive.

"So had he not been arrested, he could have, excuse me, passed himself off as dead for the rest of his life?" the judge asked.

"Thank God for fingerprints," MacCrae replied.

Arksey, who was represented by Carmel attorney Timothy Curtiss, had initially entered a not-guilty plea but apparently had a change of heart that resulted in his guilty plea yesterday. Providing Arksey stays out of trouble between now and his Aug. 11 sentencing, he will receive a one-year sentence to be served at the Putnam County jail, Miller said.

Arksey, who is being held in the jail on $50,000 bail, was returned there after his court appearance.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: criminalact; fraud

1 posted on 07/08/2004 5:01:22 AM PDT by CSM
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To: wmichgrad

Wierd story PING.


2 posted on 07/08/2004 5:01:53 AM PDT by CSM ("The Democrat Cocktail: Ketchup with a Chaser." by JennysCool (7/7/04))
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To: CSM

He was dead before he was alive. Oops!


3 posted on 07/08/2004 5:02:34 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: CSM
Arksey, who was represented by Carmel attorney Timothy Curtiss, had initially entered a not-guilty plea but apparently had a change of heart that resulted in his guilty plea yesterday

see....the CLEVER thing for this attorney to do would be to kill his client, drag his body into the courtroom, say, "see....he IS dead...my client is NOT GUILTY", then collect his fee from the estate.

;)

4 posted on 07/08/2004 5:06:58 AM PDT by ZinGirl
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To: CSM
Baghdad Bob:

The authorities claim the suspect they have in custody somehow manged to get his death certificate forged. Methinks they doth protest too much: a dead man cannot not confess.

5 posted on 07/08/2004 5:07:30 AM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: goldstategop

If this fellow had been killed at the hands of another, could the perpetrator be charged with murder? After all, the victim was already 'dead'.


6 posted on 07/08/2004 5:09:24 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: CSM
At a clinic I worked for, we would send delinquent files to a collection agency. The collection agency was in a larger town, but we were in a small town. One day we got a call from the collection agency telling us to close out an account because the person had died. The only problem was that this individual was quite well known in our small town, and we knew he was alive and well. These bozos figured if they told the collection agency that the person was dead, they would just "write it off", and no one would be the wiser.

We all got a big chuckle out of that one.

7 posted on 07/08/2004 5:14:19 AM PDT by codercpc
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To: CSM

Maybe he did die, but got better.


8 posted on 07/08/2004 5:17:08 AM PDT by AlbertWang
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To: ZinGirl; Dog Gone
see....the CLEVER thing for this attorney to do would be to kill his client, drag his body into the courtroom, say, "see....he IS dead...my client is NOT GUILTY", then collect his fee from the estate.

Makes sense to me.

I think what really alerted authorities to the fact that this guy was not dead was that he failed to show up to vote in Chicago.

9 posted on 07/08/2004 5:44:33 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: Larry Lucido

Yeah. If I ever tried this I'd make sure to change my voter registration to Democrat, too. Then there would be no doubt.


10 posted on 07/08/2004 5:53:01 AM PDT by eno_ (Freedom Lite, it's almost worth defending.)
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To: Larry Lucido
he failed to show up to vote in Chicago.

LOL....and the guy is thinking, "note to self: next time, cover ALL bases"

11 posted on 07/08/2004 5:58:15 AM PDT by ZinGirl
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To: Larry Lucido

What a great stunt. I wish I had thought of it first before I paid that parking ticket last week.


12 posted on 07/08/2004 6:05:44 AM PDT by Dog Gone
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