Roland Schaan, the man accused of impersonating a police officer and stealing two cars in Fargo, says he couldn't make his court date Monday because he has cancer.
Schaan, 24, was scheduled to plead guilty Monday to violating his probation from a 2004 theft case. Instead he told his attorney by phone he couldn't make the hearing because he was receiving cancer treatment at St. Alexius Medical Center in Bismarck, N.D.
Schaan said he has had tumors removed from his lungs and was scheduled to have another taken from near his heart, attorney Monty Mertz told the judge.
Schaan was convicted last year of impersonating a police detective while pretending to solve a burglary for a woman in Fargo. His other Cass County convictions last year include felony theft for passing a bad $20,000 check to Gateway Hyundai on a new car, and another felony for passing several other bad checks in the area.
In February a Cass County prosecutor charged Schaan with forgery, theft by deception and possession of stolen property in the purchase of a 2005 Mazda. Schaan's father told police he believed Roland had forged one of his checks for the car.
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Mertz told Judge Frank Racek on Monday that he had asked Schaan to send a doctor's handwritten note on St. Alexius letterhead. Instead Mertz got a less detailed message, but it did appear to come from the hospital, and he showed it to Racek.
A relative also vouched for Schaan's condition, Mertz said.
"I don't have any other verification telling me it's true, but I also don't have anything telling me that it's not true," Mertz told Racek.
Assistant State's attorney Trent Mahler requested a bench warrant, but Racek agreed to continue the hearing to June 13.
The Bismarck address Schaan had listed for himself in February is no longer current, a property manager there said. A Fargo phone number for Schaan's father has been disconnected.
A spokeswoman for St. Alexius said she couldn't research whether Schaan has received treatment in the past unless she had the patient's permission. She said she could only say he was not there Monday on an in-patient basis.
Schaan is scheduled for a June 1 hearing on the new charges from the February case involving the Mazda car.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Dave Forster at (701) 241-5538
