22-year-old posing as high school basketball player

ODESSA, Texas — A 22-year-old man accused of posing as a high school basketball player in Texas was released from jail Wednesday.

Guerdwich (GURD-which) Montimere posted $500 bond a day after he was arrested on a charge of failure to identify himself to a police officer, said Ector County sheriff’s Sgt. Debbie Bruce.

School officials said Montimere admitted posing as Jerry Joseph, a 16-year-old sophomore who led Permian High School to the state playoffs. Permian is the same school made famous in the football movie “Friday Night Lights.”

Suspicions about the player’s identity first arose when three Florida basketball coaches familiar with Montimere recognized him last month at an amateur tournament in Little Rock, Ark. Montimere graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale in 2007.

The 6-foot-5 Montimere presented himself as Joseph after moving to Odessa in February 2009 and enrolling as a ninth-grader at a junior high, said school district spokesman Mike Adkins.

He showed officials a Haitian birth certificate indicating he was 15 and claimed he was living with a half-brother in the dorm of a local university, Adkins said.

via google.com

Commenter 1: “Apparently Texas doesn’t check birth certificates to enroll in school.”

Commenter 2: “Neither does the White House.”