'Dead' Fraudster Jailed After Court Appearance

A Virginia man who had himself declared dead in a bid to dodge fraud charges might have gotten away with it if he hadn't tried to pull off more frauds from "beyond the grave." Rodney Newsome was jailed yesterday after turning up alive and well to a court appearance in connection with a check-cashing scam, the Washington Post reports.

Charges against Newsome were dropped last year after his lawyer produced documents showing the 37-year-old scamster had fallen into a coma and then died. His resurrection was brought to the law's attention by a sharp-eyed court clerk who spotted his name on documents and remembered the earlier case. Newsome's new lawyer insisted that his client hadn't produced the phony death certificate. "Of course not," the judge quipped. "He was dead." (More check fraud stories.)