Glenn pleads guilty to misdemeanor; may resume practice soon

A Cape Girardeau doctor pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal misdemeanor in connection with a case in which he is accused of passing a fake money order.

Byron Glenn, 57, pleaded guilty to one count of passing a fictitious instrument with intent to defraud.

He originally faced felony charges of mail fraud and passing more than $950,000 in bogus money orders and checks during the last half of 2012, but federal prosecutor Morley Swingle dropped the felony charges and asked Glenn be sentenced to time already served in exchange for his guilty plea.

Glenn had been in custody since his arrest in February.

In court Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh told Glenn he would order a presentence investigation before deciding whether to accept the binding plea agreement.

"If I disagree with the plea agreement here, I will allow you to withdraw your plea of guilty, and we'll start all over," Limbaugh said.

In the meantime, Limbaugh ordered Glenn released from custody on his own recognizance until his sentencing Nov. 12.

Reached by telephone Tuesday afternoon, Glenn's attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said he and his client are "obviously ... very hopeful that the judge will accept" the plea agreement.

Rosenblum said a misdemeanor conviction likely would not affect Glenn's ability to return to his medical practice, "especially because it was unrelated to anything having to do with his practice."

"The doctor is planning on resuming his practice a week from Monday," Rosenblum said.

In the misdemeanor charge, Swingle alleged Glenn "did endeavor to obtain funds of the United States by presenting to the First State Community Bank ... a false instrument that purported to be a money order drawn upon an account bearing a United States Treasury routing number, and the sum so obtained did not exceed $1,000, and the defendant did so with willful blindness to the high probability that he was not really entitled to take the money from the United States Treasury."

In court Tuesday, Swingle said Glenn used his computer and a U.S. Treasury routing number he pulled from a federal tax return to create a fake money order for more than $149,000, which he presented to First State Community Bank in an attempt to pay off a mortgage.

The bank did not honor the money order, Swingle said.

He said Glenn had been told the U.S. Treasury establishes an account for each citizen at birth, with the value of that account rising to about $600 million by the time the citizen reaches middle age, and that those who choose to renounce their citizenship and become "freeholders" are entitled to access the money in that account.

Rosenblum declined to comment on where Glenn had gotten that information, but in court Tuesday, Swingle said Glenn should have known better.

"He was a highly educated man who realized there was a high probability he was not entitled" to funds from the U.S. Treasury, Swingle said.

This is not the first time Glenn's name has been connected to a far-fetched claim.

In 2011, Glenn told the Southeast Missourian he had been harassed by members of a "research group" led by a man named Terral L. Croft who believed a brown dwarf star dubbed "Planet X" would approach Earth's solar system in August or September 2011, causing earthquakes, floods and other disasters.

At the time, Glenn called Croft "out there" and "on the edge" and dismissed Croft's claim that Glenn was leading a group of survivalists who planned to ride out the disasters in caves in the Missouri Ozarks.

But Glenn told the Southeast Missourian he was an amateur astronomer and had seen something alarming through his telescope, though he declined to say what it was. Instead, he quoted a line from the movie "A Few Good Men": "You can't handle the truth."

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address: Cape Girardeau, MO