PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Blessed with a boyish face, a 31-year-old fugitive on the run from forgery and theft charges took refuge in the classrooms and hallways of his high school alma mater.
Michael Backman, Grant High School class of '86, has pretended to be a 17-year-old senior at Grant High since September, taking a full slate of classes including government, global studies, Spanish, and geometry, police said.The charade came to an end Wednesday when a detective acting on an anonymous tip interrupted choir practice to take him into custody.
"I introduced myself and told him I wanted some help in identifying someone," said Sgt. Mike Hefley. "I opened up the 1986 high school yearbook and pointed to a picture of him.
"His reaction was one of shock. He knew and we knew."
Backman was jailed on outstanding theft, forgery and parole violation charges from Oregon, Washington and California.
"According to him, he wanted to start over and try to get an education and continue to college," the detective said.
At Grant High, which gained fame as the site of the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus," the fugitive was known as Deandrea Deangelo, a transfer student from Beverly Hills High School in California.
At 5-foot-10, 150 pounds, with a short-cropped hair and an unlined face, Backman had no problem passing himself off as a teenager, although students say they had their suspicions.
"The main thing that tipped us off was he kept talking about how hard it was to get into school," said 16-year-old Will Maxie, an economics classmate who also knew Backman from choir.