The Region - News from April 23, 1985

A former Marine who claims he was born in Tennessee and is related to Elvis Presley was fined $1,000 and placed on five years’ probation in Los Angeles federal court for using false evidence to apply for U.S. citizenship. U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall also ordered Earl Stevenson, 26, of Buena Park to undergo psychiatric counseling. The Immigration and Naturalization Service is seeking to deport Stevenson to South Africa but he maintains he is a U.S. citizen because he was born in this country while his parents were vacationing here. Judge Marshall found him guilty last month in a non-jury trial on the false evidence charge and an additional count of making false statements to a federal agency. Stevenson, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1978, testified that his original birth certificate was lost and that Presley helped him obtain a “delayed” birth certificate showing he was born in Memphis in 1958.