Police: Man fakes death to avoid trial

SALEM, Mass. (AP) - Massachusetts authorities are searching for a man they said faked his death to beat charges of driving without a license.

The Gloucester Times reported that Michael Rosen, 42, of Salem sent a man to court last week to file a certificate showing that Rosen had died the previous week. Afterward, a judge dismissed the traffic case.

But a suspicious probation officer heard from a colleague in a neighboring town that Rosen had checked in four days after he purportedly died.

Additional investigation showed the certificate contained spelling errors in the place of birth, cause of death and the cemetery. City officials confirmed the document was a fake, lacking a raised seal and printed on the wrong kind of paper.

Rosen now faces additional charges of forgery and counterfeiting.