Kaushal Niroula, the Nepalese-born purported con man on trial for allegedly masterminding a plan to murder and loot a Palm Springs retiree, has been given a judge's blessing to act as his own attorney, according to The Desert Sun.

Niroula, 28, who during his alleged San Francisco con-man career carried himself as if he were a high-rolling Nepalese Prince, had burned through three attorneys since he and his four alleged co-conspirators were arrested a year ago.

Niroula, along with San Francisco attorney David Replogle, 60, ex-Niroula boyfriend Danny Garcia, 27, and purported hired muscle Craig McCarthy, 30, face first-degree murder charges in connection with the December, 2008 disappearance of Clifford Lambert. The five men are accused of killing Lambert so he could not contest forged power of attorney documents used to sell his Palm Springs house.

It's tempting to think that Niroula is just another foolhardy and arrogant criminal defendant unable to accept bad news relayed by his attorneys. Bolstering this view is the way Niroula seemed desperate to concoct elaborate fantasies about his own life. He is alleged to have stolen more than $1 million and then spent it maintaining a high-power facade, with fancy hotel rooms, travel, clothes, limousines, and other high-life accouterments.

It's possible Niroula's decision to defend himself is merely an extension of his megalomaniac fantasy life.

SF Weekly's reporting, however, suggests something else at play.

As previuosly reported in this space, Niroula may be an earthly vessel for supernatural forces of evil, and may possess personal powers allowing him to hold sway over the U.S. criminal justice system.

"There are too many instances of him getting out and going free to blame it on his charisma or a lack of good police work," said Hawaii attorney Stephen Shaw, who represented Megumi Hisamatsu, a Japanese woman who has claimed in a San Francisco federal lawsuit that Niroula bilked her out of $500,000. "I attribute it to the supernatural. He's evil. He's like a vessel. And if people don't treat it like this, he's going to continue doing what he's doing."

When Riverside County Superior Court Judge David Downing ruled earlier this month that Niroula will now drive his own defense, did he ask himself: Can Riverside County prosecutors and juries penetrate a netherworld defense?


"Somebody along the line -- a judge, or a probation officer -- is going to agree with me and say, 'I'm seeing this as a presence of evil,'" said Shaw, when we interviewed him last year.

Apparently Judge Downing does not fit that description.

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WOBURN, Massachusetts ~Veritas -- that is to say, "truth" -- was the last thing on the mind of a Delaware man who allegedly faked his way into Harvard and duped the Ivy League school out of $45,000 in financial aid, grants and scholarships.

Adam Wheeler, 23, was admitted to Harvard and became a student in 2007 after he falsely claimed he had a perfect academic record at Phillips Academy in Andover and had studied for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, prosecutors said Monday.

Ultimately, authorities said, Wheeler's attempts to be an overachiever were his undoing: Harvard started to look into Wheeler's background after he sought the school's endorsement for prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships.

A professor reviewing his application noticed similarities between Wheeler's writing and that of a colleague, prosecutors said. Wheeler was indicted on 20 offenses, including larceny, identity fraud and pretending to hold a degree.

He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. Wheeler, who was studying English, was trying to transfer to Yale and Brown when he got caught in the "web of lies and deceit," District Attorney Gerry Leone said.

"This defendant's actions cheated those who competed honestly and fairly for admissions and for the scholarships that this defendant fraudulently obtained," Leone said.

Harvard released a statement saying it could not discuss individual cases because of federal privacy laws and referred all questions to the Middlesex District Attorney's office.

Before attending Harvard, Wheeler was a student at Bowdoin College in Maine from 2005-07, but was suspended for academic dishonesty, authorities said.

The Griftology: Although Harvard is made up of extremely intelligent people on their staff, there is always someone smarter. So the guy lied about his past. Who cares! He was obviously smart enough to get past dozens of panels, admissions staff, loan approval committees, etc, etc, etc. And then was able to still make the grades for almost 3 years before applying to transfer to Yale. That's the kind of guy they should want at Harvard. He's obviously extremely intelligent, just not quite crafty enough to be a full-time Grifter. Of course, he will probably just get probation for these offenses, so he can go on to grift again in a couple of years when it's all over and he has also convinced a judge to "Expunge" his record. LOL.

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The Grifters (Paperback)
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