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Accused Alison Krauss Impostor Misses Mental Hearing; Lawyer Gives Reason

A woman accused of bilking a Fayetteville man out of almost $300,000 while pretending to be country music star Alison Krauss was arrested Oct. 8 when she showed...

A woman accused of bilking a Fayetteville man out of almost $300,000 while pretending to be country music star Alison Krauss was arrested Oct. 8 when she showed up for a scheduled appearance in the Washington County Circuit Court.

Peggy Sue Evers, 52, was supposed to go to a mental hearing Sept. 18, but didn't show up. Her $10,000 bond was revoked and an arrest warrant was issued.

Ever's lawyer, James Hensley, said she was in New Mexico when she missed the scheduled appearance.

"She doesn`t have much money and was having some trouble getting here and there was some miscommunication," Hensley said.

David Bercaw with the Washington County Prosecutor's Office said that Evers will not receive a charge for missing the mental hearing.

Hensley is working to get Evers a new bond set so that she can be released from the Washington County Detention Center.

She now is set to appear before Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay on Nov. 21 on a previous felony charge of theft by deception, court officials said.

In June, Evers was arrested and, at her arraignment days later, pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of abuse of an endangered or impaired person. That charge was later changed to theft by deception, Bercaw said.

She was ordered by the Washington County Circuit Court to undergo a mental evaluation in the case after her lawyers said they would use mental disease or defect as a defense, according to court documents.

Police said Evers convinced a 75-year-old local man she was Krauss. During the time of the alleged crime, the man’s bank account fell from $45,000 to $5,000, and he signed his $245,000 house over to Evers, according to an arrest warrant affidavit in Washington County Circuit Court.

Fayetteville police began investigating Evers in April when First Security Bank officials contacted investigators, concerned because their elderly customer Don Fulton withdrew several thousand dollars within a few months, the affidavit states. Fulton’s son told a detective his father had recently met a woman online who the father believed was Krauss. Fulton had recently married Evers, and the son thought she might be taking financial advantage of him, according to the affidavit.

Fulton later told police he believed Evers was Krauss and that she had changed her name to escape the paparazzi. He also said he signed his home over to Evers so that she could put it in Fulton’s son’s name.

Investigators also found out that Evers had changed Fulton’s will to give her his money in the event of his death, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. Evers gained control of Fulton’s home by alleging merit-less battery accusations against Fulton, police said.

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