5th Duke of Cleveland hoax

The 5th Duke of Cleveland hoax garnered media attention in January 2006 after Joshua Adam Gardner (born September 4, 1983) allegedly misrepresented himself to the students and staff of Stillwater Area High School in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota as a fictional fifth Duke of Cleveland from England.
When student journalists began researching Gardner's identity, they soon discovered his listing in an online Florida database as a registered sex offender based on Gardner's 2003 Minnesota conviction for fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct. Students informed school authorities, who contacted police.
Visits to Stillwater Area High School
The 22-year-old Gardner allegedly visited Stillwater Area High School in Minnesota three times, telling students he was 17-year-old Caspian James Crichton-Stuart IV, 5th Duke of Cleveland and expressing an interest in enrolling in the high school. Assuming an English accent, Gardner reportedly insisted on being called "your Grace", claimed he was 27th in line for the British throne and that he was friends with Prince Harry. and were able to derive from the deletion discussion Gardner's real name. a conviction for coercing a 14-year-old girl to have sex.
Subsequent charges
In July 2006, Gardner was arrested and charged on three sexual-conduct charges, including two felonies, following allegations involving a 15-year-old boy in Chanhassen, Minnesota, during the summer of 2005, several months before the Stillwater High School incident.<ref name="WCCO"/> Carver County prosecutors said Gardner used the same fake identity with the Chaska High School student, who came forward after seeing media coverage of Gardner in January.<ref name="WCCO"/> Gardner was incarcerated in Rush City, Minnesota with an expected release date of September 3, 2010.<ref name="offender"/>

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