![]() ![]() School authorities became suspicious after students noticed stubble poking through his makeup in afternoon classes. He sang soprano in the choir and even joined the all-girl cheerleading squad, where he performed in uniform during at least one pep rally. For eight days, the then-26-year-old man attended classes wearing women's blazers, skirts and high heels. In 1990, Aerison enrolled at Coronado High School in Colorado Springs as a seventeen-year-old transfer student from Greece named Cheyen Weatherly. She was not the first to feel betrayed - or the last. She felt like a close friend had died without the opportunity to mourn. "She's married now and has a baby, but to this day, she does not feel she can trust people the way she did before meeting Charles Daugherty. "Our daughter had nightmares over this," Ruth says. He's husky and he's ugly."Įven so, the couple discovered the truth only after a Colorado Springs detective caught wind of the ruse and presented their daughter with photos of Charles Daugherty, who had been in and out of jail for everything from burglary to fraud to impersonation. "Even though he didn't quite look the part." "Most people around him tended to take him at his word and believe what he said," Ed adds. When you saw him, you thought it could be a girl who was a bit tomboyish and muscular. The detective said he taped everything down. He had an immediate coverup answer for everything. He once told the squad that his dad had a heart attack, and everyone sent over bouquets. ![]() "He did so many strange things to get sympathy. "He always tried to make himself out as being very wealthy and better than he was," Ruth recalls. His apartment was decorated with portraits of Donald Trump, and he even pulled into the couple's driveway in the back of a stretch limo. He bragged about owning several Trans Am sports cars, riding on private jets and traveling overseas. "It's amazing the things he pulled off," says Ed.Īt the time, Aerison called himself Shannon Trump (one of eight aliases now on his rap sheet) and pretended to be the niece of billionaire Donald Trump, the couple contends. Wearing green contact lenses and pancake makeup, Aerison befriended Ruth and Ed's seventeen-year-old daughter, also a cheerleader. The couple met Aerison in the fall of 1989, when he sashayed his way onto the cheerleading squad for the now-defunct Colorado Springs Spirit football team. "There's nothing good you can say about this person," Ed says. They don't want their last names used because they're afraid. Ruth is a retired teacher's aide, and Ed is a retired military photographer. He'll never stop until he gets punished." They've clipped news articles, taken notes and discussed again and again the strange tale of a black man pretending to be a white woman pretending to be a supermodel. For the past eleven years, she and her husband, Ed, have attended practically every court hearing involving Aerison, who was born as Charles Daugherty but legally changed his name in 1992. The 36-year-old Aerison whispers calmly to the public defender who'll argue against the mounting criminal charges, then opens a paperback and begins reading, mouthing the words as if they were scripture.Īcross the aisle, a grandmother clutches her handbag and scowls. On this afternoon, Aerison appears to be just another dumpy blonde with a ponytail, potbelly and sunglasses, wearing rumpled clothes - baggy sweatpants, jogging jacket, Mickey Mouse T-shirt - and waiting under the pale fluorescent lights of the Fourth Judicial District Court in Colorado Springs. Gone are the poses, the pouts and the sultry glances of Aerison's Internet persona - Shannon Ireland, cover girl. Gone is the heavy mascara, the lipstick and the thick layers of blush. Storme Aerison walks to the front of the courtroom and selects an aisle seat. ![]()
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