Dee Deirdre Farmer, also known as Douglas Farmer, 41, of Baltimore, was convicted recently of Misuse of a Death Certificate and Obstruction of Justice, for his concocting of a scheme involving created identities to clear his criminal record.

Farmer admitted before Judge Roger Brown of the Baltimore City Circuit Court that he forged a court order in an effort to change a death certificate of someone else to reflect that he, Farmer, had died.

When Farmer presented the forged court order to the State Division of Vital Records, something about the order “didn’t look right” to the agency staff, so they reported it to Maryland Attorney General Joseph Curran’s Office.

After investigation, it was discovered that Farmer’s court order was a complete fabrication, prepared by Farmer in the hopes of being able to use the altered death certificate to get unrelated criminal charges pending against him in federal court and Baltimore County Circuit Court dismissed.

Farmer also admitted to forging an Affidavit, ostensibly in the name of a “Lt. William Cherry” of the Baltimore County Police Department, to the effect that crimes committed in the name of Farmer were actually committed by a “Larry Prescott”, who the affidavit claimed, had stolen Farmer’s identity.

In fact, Farmer had stolen Prescott’s identity 20 years ago, and Lt. William Cherry does not exist.

Farmer filed this fraudulent “affidavit” in an unrelated Baltimore City Circuit Court criminal case pending against him, presumably in an effort to get those charges dismissed as well.

Sentencing for Farmer, who has a long criminal record, is scheduled for January 16, 2007.

The case was referred to the Criminal Investigations Division of the Attorney General’s Office by the State Division of Vital Records, and was investigated with the assistance of the Maryland State Police.