‘Dead’ Fugitive Is Arrested After Police Receive Tips

When Glendale police arrested Janet Susan Brice--the woman of at least 59 aliases, who allegedly forged a death certificate to avoid petty theft charges--she was dyeing her blonde hair brown.

And she had a new I.D. “Patty Hickman” read the California identification card she handed to police.

But for Brice, the jig was up.

Ten people phoned Glendale police after reading about Brice in The Times on Thursday morning. By 11:30 a.m., Glendale police were knocking at her Silver Lake house where two sports cars were parked in the driveway.

“I didn’t know that the L.A. Times printed wanted photos,” Brice, 47, grumbled to detectives as they led her away with dripping hair, shoeless and wearing a robe.

Brice--a woman with a history of arrests for prostitution, drug use and theft--allegedly skipped out in 1990 on a $700 auto repair bill. Petty theft charges were filed against her on July 26, 1990, in Glendale Municipal Court. A warrant was issued for her arrest when she failed to show up for her arraignment.

The criminal charges were dismissed a year later after a judge received Brice’s alleged death certificate and a letter supposedly written by the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s office.

Yet, the “dead” Brice was decidedly alive. She was spotted browsing in a Glendale bath and linen store in June by a Glendale police officer, but evaded arrest.

The death certificate and letter were forged, court officials belatedly discovered. A second warrant was issued and the twisted tale was published.

Brice--alias Hickman, alias Gena Armstrong, alias Gena Powers (“She likes Genas. There’s a lot of Genas,” said a Glendale detective)--was arraigned Thursday in Glendale Municipal Court on a petty theft charge. A preliminary hearing was set for Tuesday.

Because of her convictions, she could receive up to three years in state prison if convicted, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Grodin said.

Meanwhile, Grodin said, police are conducting two investigations: one on the death certificate forgery and the other on a “potpourri” of crimes that Brice may have committed since she skipped out on the arraignment.

As for Brice, the only words she spoke Thursday in court, besides “not guilty,” were “I’m so embarrassed.”