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What's In A Name?

By John Mesirow

About 12 years ago, Ocean City, Maryland resident Richard Brueckner disappeared - right when Richard Thelander was "born." Now these are just the allegations against Brueckner/Thelander (as reported in The Maryland Coast Dispatch), but it sure doesn't look real good:

The charges against Brueckner ... include about half a dozen cases where he forged his ex-wife?s name to obtain credit cards, which he quickly maxed out to their limits. The amounts ranged from around $5,000 on the low side to as high as $14,000 on another with several different amounts obtained in cash and merchandize on credit cards in between.

He also cleared out several of the couple?s other accounts and holdings, leaving his wife facing bankruptcy and a years-long struggle to clear up the financial mess.

Cash in hand, Brueckner (now Thelander) headed west. He ended up in Arizona, where he became the Superintendent and Chief Executive Officer of a new 3-campus charter school! The Superintendent and the CEO! Nice background check there, Pace Preparatory Academy. He also got remarried, and apparently started buying up some real estate.

Things either weren't going that well, or maybe it was just time to move on. Thelander applied for Panamanian citizenship - under the name "Richard Brueckner-Thelander" - and was accepted. It won't matter, though, because he was busted a month ago, and is in the process of being extradited back to Maryland to face a whole host of charges. I wonder what they'll call him in prison? You can read more (and there's plenty more) here.

For an update on this story, click here.

For a further update, including how the court disposed of the charges, click here. Hint - it was a great deal for Mr. Brueckner. Do you think it was "just?"

Full post as published by Legal Juice on November 23, 2008 (boomark / email).