Sex Offender Poses As Royalty, Tours School
OAK PARK HEIGHTS, Minn. -- He posed as a prospective student and tried to pass himself off as a member of a royal family from Europe -- until some student journalists uncovered his past.
Police said "Caspian" visited Stillwater Area High School in Minnesota three times. He told students he was 17 and that he was "Caspian James Chrichton Stuart the Fourth," the "Fifth Duke of Cleveland."
At the school newspaper, student journalists thought that if "Caspian's" story were true, it would make an interesting feature. They eventually found his picture on a Web site -- for Florida's registry of sex offenders. (Click here to see his sex offender flyer.)
KARE-TV reported that it turned out he was 22-year-old Joshua Adam Gardner, who was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in Winona County in 2003. He's how being held on a probation violation.
Stillwater Principal Chris Lennox said there's no indication that Gardner assaulted or seriously bothered anyone at the school.
