The 29-year-old woman who enrolled in a New Jersey high school posing as a teenage student was just hoping to relive her glory days, according to her lawyer.
Hyejeong Shin, who allegedly forged a birth certificate to act as a 16-year-old and attend classes at New Brunswick High School, wanted to return to “an environment that she looks back on fondly,” her lawyer Darren Gelber told ABC 7.
Shin was indicted by a grand jury for providing a false government document and hindering her own prosecution.
She pleaded not guilty in court on Monday.
The Rutgers University grad had attended classes for four days before school administrators found out she was a woman pushing 30 and not a teenage girl.
Gelber said his client — who had moved from South Korea to the US to attend a private boarding school at age 16 — had no ill intentions and was simply lonely.
He said she longed for an environment similar to her boarding school days surrounded by friends and hoped to recreate it at New Brunswick High School, ABC reported.
“At no time was anyone or any student in danger and this entire case is more about my client wanting to return to a place of safety and welcoming and an environment that she looks back on fondly and nothing more,” Gelber told the station.
New Brunswick police earlier said they did not believe Shin’s attempt to attend high school again came from a desire to inflict harm to students, faculty or staff.
The accused grifter is hoping to be accepted into a pre-trial intervention program to avoid jail time, her attorney said during the hearing Monday.
Shin then plans to return to South Korea 13 years after she moved to the US, according to ABC.