Reality Show Singer's Military Photo Is Bogus

Timothy Michael Poe's story unravels a little more
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 7, 2012 7:45 PM CDT
Reality Show Singer's Military Photo Is Bogus
In this photo provided by NBCUniversal, Timothy Michael Poe appears on "America's Got Talent."   (Virginia Sherwood)

The war tales of Timothy Michael Poe, a contestant on America's Got Talent, sounded a little fishy when the military couldn't back them up. This certainly won't help his cause: The photo he submitted to the show, supposedly of himself in military gear, turns out to be of another soldier. Poe won't comment, but his fiancee tells the AP it was an honest mistake. She says he must have downloaded it by accident off a military site because he was in a rush.

"I know that it was a mistake on his part," she says. "It was an accident. It was a complete accident." The soldier in the photo is actually Staff Sgt. Norman Bone, and it was taken while he was in Afghanistan in 2006. He is still on active duty and declined to comment while he consulted with a lawyer. Poe told the show's judges that he was seriously wounded in Afghanistan and took up singing to ease his recovery. The Minnesota National Guard, with whom he served, says it has no record of him getting injured. (More America's Got Talent stories.)

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