NJ - Hyejeong Shin, 29, fake high school student, caught and charged with fraud - New Brunswick, 24 Jan 2023

[ifindedout]

NJ ‘High School Student' Busted as 29-Year-Old Woman Who Lied on Birth Certificate: Cops

A 29-year-old woman in facing charges after she allegedly posed as someone almost half her age and enrolled in a New Jersey high school.

www.nbcnewyork.com

Police said Hyejeong Shin was charged Tuesday with providing a false government document. School officials said she had been going to classes, pretending to be a teenager for four days.

It wasn't immediately made clear why Shin did so. Students at the school told the local paper, New Brunswick Today, that she was making friends — and fear she might have been trying to recruit girls for sex trafficking.

Picture in the DM:

Woman, 29, is charged with posing as a kid to attend high school

Hyejeong Shin, 29, was arrested last week after attending classes at New Brunswick High School for four days before her true age was discovered, district officials said on Tuesday.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[JerseyGirl]

Woman, 29, Who Pretended to Be a High School Teen Pleads Not Guilty (Published 2023)

Lawyers for Hyejeong Shin said she longed for the sense of safety she felt as a teenager at a Massachusetts boarding school.

www.nytimes.com

Pleads not guilty

 

[ifindedout]

More backstory:

29-year-old scientist enrolled in high school and pretended to be a teenager

A 29-year-old woman enrolled as a student at a New Jersey high school because she was lonely and “wanted to return to a place of safety,” her lawyers have said.

www.yahoo.com

She went on to study political science and Chinese at Rutgers University in New York, and was named a learning community scholar in 2017.

She practised meditation, enjoyed singing and had been studying for a masters degree.

But it appears that her life started to unravel soon after, as she got divorced and fell $20,000 (£16,300) behind on rent, according to court records.

Two notes of caution:

1. Rutgers is a New Jersey college, not New York. Since this story is centered on New Brunswick, I presume she was attending the main campus, as she is shown here: 2017-2018 Learning Community Scholars Fall
2. (headline) scientist != political scientist != political science major. Editorial fail here. MOO

 

[ifindedout]

Judge approves her for pretrial intervention program:

Judge: 29-year-old who posed as teen student because she was lonely can enter pretrial program

A 29-year-old woman accused of using false documents to enroll as a New Jersey high school student and attend some classes over a four-day period will be allowed to enter a pretrial intervention program, a state judge ruled.

www.audacy.com

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — A 29-year-old woman accused of using false documents to enroll as a New Jersey high school student and attend some classes over a four-day period will be allowed to enter a pretrial intervention program, a state judge ruled Monday.

The woman had pleaded not guilty in March to a charge of providing a false government document. Her lawyer has said she did so because she was lonely and longed to return to her days with friends in school but now realizes she made a mistake. She will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and, if she completes the program, the charge against her could eventually be dismissed.

 

[MissMalowe]

"Because she was lonely and longeded to return to her days in school with friends?" Sounds a but like maybe a "sympathetic spin" on her story via the lawyer?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

• Hyejeong Shin’s lawyer says his client came to the US for boarding school at 16 and wanted to return to ‘an environment that she looks back on fondly’
• Authorities say she got the phone numbers of students and continued to text some of them even after her ruse was discovered
• She will have to undergo a mental health evaluation and, if she completes the programme, the charge against her could eventually be dismissed.
• The lawyer said his client had no nefarious intentions when she enrolled at New Brunswick High School in January. She was just seeking to return to “a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that she looks back on fondly”, he said.

South Korean woman, 29, ‘enrolled in US high school because she was lonely’

Hyejeong Shin’s lawyer says his client came to the US for boarding school at 16 and wanted to return to ‘an environment that she looks back on fondly’.

www.scmp.com

 

[MissMalowe]

• Authorities say she got the phone numbers of students and continued to text some of them even after her ruse was discovered

South Korean woman, 29, ‘enrolled in US high school because she was lonely’

A 29 year old pretending to be a high schooler, befriending and communicating outside of school with (14-18?) year olds under the guise of being a teen herself is not just odd, but creepy. If this were a 29 year old man doing this, I don't know that
"this entire case is more about my client wanting to return to a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that he looks back on fondly and nothing more" would quite hit the same....

 

[EmiliaRT007]

This is probably like the 4th case of a 20-something pretending to be a high schooler. Why is it so common? That’s weird.

This woman needs help. Like actual help. That’s weird. Loneliness isn’t an excuse for this. Imagine someone had a crush on her because she looked the same age only to find out she’s a sick creep twice their age. Just imagine. Ugh!

If this was a man he’d have life in prison, but since it’s a woman people just deem it “odd”? Nope! I don’t care if it’s a woman, still a creep. A creep’s a creep.

She still continued to text with these teenagers after she was busted? She knew what she was doing. She obviously had some nasty intentions. Gross.