Sergeant Who Faked Death Pleads Guilty

An Air Force sergeant who faked his death in 1987 pleaded guilty Monday to desertion and bigamy, telling a military judge he was ready to end his double life as it crumbled around him.

Douglas Pou, 32, said he knew in his last days of freedom in June that he was under surveillance and close to being arrested. By then, his second wife had discovered his real identity and that he had impregnated a neighbor.

“I was ready for this to happen,” Pou said during a court-martial hearing at March Air Force Base. “I was scared but I was ready. It was difficult living the way I did.”

In a plea bargain, Pou admitted to bigamy and desertion. The government agreed to drop a count of larceny that was based on his first wife’s collection of $500,000 in insurance money after he was pronounced dead in New Mexico.

The agreement calls for Pou to be sentenced to three years in prison and be given a dishonorable discharge. He could have been sentenced to five years.

Judge Willard Pope ordered further evidence and testimony to be presented before deciding whether he would accept the plea bargain.

Before the proceedings, Pou came out on the front steps of the courthouse and posed for pictures clad in his sergeant’s uniform and wearing the red beret of the elite parachute rescue team that he served with before leaving his first wife and their two young sons.

Representatives from seven television production companies seeking to buy the rights to Pou’s story attended Monday’s court-martial. Pou has hired an agent and an entertainment lawyer to negotiate.

Last December, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state laws barring people from profiting from crimes through book and movie deals are unconstitutional limits on free speech.

Pou’s mother, Mary Ann, and three sisters watched as he recounted for the judge the morning of May 12, 1987, when he set out for his daily bicycle ride at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M., where he was stationed.

“When I crossed the bridge (over the Rio Grande River) I jumped off my bicycle and crashed and fell on the ground,” he said. “I took off my shoes, jumped from the bridge, and worked my way in the water upstream until I reached a sparse wooded area, where I got out.”

He said he made his way to a bus station, used $60 to take a bus to San Diego and learned from newspapers about a massive search for him.

“What was your intent?” Judge Willard Pope asked.

“I really hadn’t given it any thought at that time. But I did have an intent later to go away,” Pou responded. “I can only describe it as an instinct. I relied a lot on instinct and kept a very low profile.”

In San Diego, Pou said he took a new name, Christopher Riggs, and married a woman who bore him two children.

Master Sgt. William Burton, who served with Pou in the rescue squad, described Pou as a hard-working overachiever who inspired great loyalty among his friends.

He said as many as 100 of his colleagues searched the river for his body for days after his disappearance. Burton said some friends continued to search until the day they heard he had been discovered alive.

Asked how he felt about Pou’s re-emergence, Burton said: “I was completely devastated.”

Pou’s first wife, Suzanne, was not present.

Pou said he remains married to his second wife.

Their neighbor has given birth to Pou’s child.