Man Who Staged His Death Gets Probation : Fraud: Gary Elliott plans a reunion with the family he abandoned 14 years ago. Then he hopes to divorce his wife and marry his girlfriend.

Gary Elliott, the man who abandoned his wife and seven children in rural Illinois and turned up 14 years later in Orange County with an assumed name, was sentenced Wednesday to two years’ probation after pleading guilty to charges of falsifying his identity.

As he left the courtroom, Elliott, who had spent 59 days in jail on federal and state charges, said he planned a reunion with his Illinois family and a wedding with Jennifer Bradford, the woman he had been living with in California.

“I’m just very relieved, very glad that it’s all over,” Elliott said as he hurried to the elevator with a beaming Bradford.

Elliott, who used the name Clifford Wraymond Leighton for several years, was released for time served after pleading guilty to both federal and state charges, including lying about his identity to police officers, using a dead person’s birth certificate and falsifying a passport.

His scheme began to unravel when Bradford reported him missing in January; three weeks later, he was found unconscious in the desert and was identified as Gary Elliott.

“I’m glad it’s over, (but I) hate to say the word over because it’s actually just starting for us,” Bradford said. “I’m glad all the hearings are off and the trial is off, and we’re not looking at any more jail time.”

Bradford planned a romantic, candlelight dinner with champagne and “the thickest filet mignon I could find.” She said she will join Elliott on a trip to Illinois within the next month but would stay in the background as her fiance gets reacquainted with the family he left behind when he staged his death by leaving his blood-spattered truck in an inner-city neighborhood.

In Illinois, relatives said they are unsure what to expect when they meet with Elliott, who turned 50 on Tuesday.

“If he wants to see me, that’s fine,” said daughter Jennifer Jewell, 20, who last saw Elliott when she was 7. “I’m excited to see him. I hope that everything turns out OK. I hope that he’s sincere. From the letters, he sounds sincere.”

Jewell and her mother, Maxine, said Elliott has written letters to all his children, his parents and his siblings, and phoned his Illinois family from his jail cell.

“Some of the kids do want to see him simply because he’s their dad,” said Mike McClellehan, a family friend and pastor of the local church. “One of the boys is pretty angry with him, and he wants to see him to tell him what he thinks. Another one of the boys doesn’t want to see him because he wants to keep working through his emotions.”

Maxine Elliott added: “We’re all just trying to get back on our feet.”

She said she does not mind if Gary Elliott marries Bradford. But first, Bradford pointed out, the Elliotts will need to divorce.

More worrisome, Maxine Elliott said, is the Social Security Administration’s claim that her family owes about $150,000 for the money they collected after Elliott disappeared and was declared dead. Maxine Elliott signed a statement this spring saying she did not purposely defraud the government and was unable to repay the money, but has not yet heard back from Social Security.

Social Security officials refused to comment, citing privacy regulations.

Larry Schroeder, spokesman for the company that paid Maxine Elliott $84,000 for her husband’s life insurance policy after he was declared dead in 1986, said prosecutors refused to file a claim of insurance fraud against Gary Elliott because there was no evidence he had fabricated his death to reap financial gain or commit the fraud.

“The only person we could pursue is already a victim; it’s his wife,” Schroeder said. “We don’t intend to do that; we don’t think that’s in the best interest of her or the public or anybody else for us to pursue somebody who’s already been victimized beyond reality.”

Attorney Fred Anderson said he and his client are still unsure what happened to Elliott before he was found unconscious in rural Hemet on Feb. 19. A laptop computer, two metal detectors, his wallet and jewelry were missing from his car. Anderson said that Elliott was not trying to disappear again and that Elliott has recently been having “flashbacks” of himself and a group of people sitting around a desert campfire.

Elliott’s car insurance company, State Farm, has refused to pay for the $2,000 in personal items stolen from the car because Elliott’s policy was filed under the name Leighton. But, Anderson said, “it doesn’t matter if the policy is in the name of Abraham Lincoln,” the stolen items should be covered because Elliott paid the insurance premiums.