families eagerly offering to give him a home. time for the next chapter to begin. and what a chapter that is. it begins on the day after christmas in 1995, the day after his birthday, michael found himself in court. i asked a few questions, suggested that he put the gameboy down and involve himself in the proceedings. michael appeared before juvenile court judge frederick addone, whose job was to find the boy a better life. as he would respond to questions, the timbre and the quality of the voice was a little unusual. and that s when it became a little more curious, a little more suspicious. suspicious? judge oddone was bothered by his misdemeanor, by the way he avoided the judge s eyes. and he noticed that while michael had been given a medical exam, it was not complete. wouldn t take his clothes off? absolutely not. would not even consider it. by the morning of the 27th, judge oddone s suspicions had grown and he wasn t alone. we were making meals for the
another arrest. this one was even covered on television. can you tell us why you did this? i told you in court. can you tell us again? just to get a place to stay and food to eat. for the same reason. how d you get away with it? well, i look young, and a lot of people tend to believe that i am young. what about all those hard-bitten reporters who with tears in their eyes breathlessly told the story in salt lake. everybody got suckered, up and down the line. reporter: chip got a front-page byline for breaking the story in the deseret news. looking back on it we probably all said to ourselves, we should have known. it was too good to be true. all those letters, all those lies. birdie jo had done more than bruised some egos. birdie jo had done real damage. judge oddone, angry now, got ready for an already cynical public to turn its back on needy, itinerant children. people were calling from all
country and kind-hearted people were eager to help. can we adopt the boy? can we take him home? i must have this boy, they would say. maybe because it was christmas. maybe because some people do care. it was as if love had finally arrived and people all over salt lake began to get a sense of real joy about what was being done. it was amazing, really, that a destitute boy could find himself alone and abandoned here at a city bus station and not a week later have opened christmas presents, had two trust funds set up in his name and have families eagerly offering to give him a home. time for the next chapter to begin. and what a chapter that is. it begins on the day after christmas in 1995, the day after his birthday, michael found himself in court. i asked a few questions, suggested that he put the gameboy down and involve himself in the proceedings. michael appeared before juvenile court judge frederick addone, whose job was to find
hard-bitten reporters who with tears in their eyes breathlessly told the story in salt lake. everybody got suckered, up and down the line. reporter: chip got a front-page byline for breaking the story in the deseret news. looking back on it we probably all said to ourselves, we should have known. it was too good to be true. all those letters, all those lies. birdie jo had done more than bruised some egos. birdie jo had done real damage. judge oddone, angry now, got ready for an already cynical public to turn its back on needy, itinerant children. people were calling from all over the united states and offering to take this child home for christmas and make christmas for him. and what this did was this slammed the door on all that charity and all that kindness. birdie jo spent 30 days in jail in salt lake for forgery and making false statements and then was released to this homeless shelter. she was ordered by the court to complete a life skills course. life skills? birdie
set up in his name and have families eagerly offering to give him a home. time for the next chapter to begin. and what a chapter that is. it begins on the day after christmas in 1995, the day after his birthday, michael found himself in court. i asked a few questions, suggested that he put the gameboy down and involve himself in the proceedings. michael appeared before juvenile court judge frederick addone, whose job was to find the boy a better life. as he would respond to questions, the timbre and the quality of the voice was a little unusual. and that s when it became a little more curious, a little more suspicious. suspicious? judge oddone was bothered by his demeanor, by the way he avoided the judge s eyes. and he noticed that while michael had been given a medical exam, it was not complete. wouldn t take his clothes off? absolutely not. would not even consider it. by the morning of the 27th, judge oddone s suspicions had