14 DAY TRIAL // America's Got Talent is the latest televised competition to make headlines for what voices call the most shameful fraud of recent times: a stuttering war vet (who might not be either), Timothy Poe. Nick Cannon says he smelled something fishy about the guy from the start.
Timothy told the judges he'd discovered a passion for music after he started singing in the shower as a means to cope with his speech impediment, which he developed after a brain injury he received in the war in Afghanistan.
He also claimed he had served in the army for 14 years and was only discharged after the aforementioned injury, which was caused by an exploding grenade.
As it turns out, it seems that nothing of Poe's story can be verified: the photo he provided producers with was not of himself, and there are no records indicating he was ever injured in the war.
As such, speculation is running rampant that he might have lied about everything else as well, including his stutter.
Nick Cannon, the host of the show, for one, seems inclined to believe that. TMZ paparazzi caught up with him at the airport and, though he attempted to be diplomatic about it, his real belief shone through.
Nick doesn't believe Poe was telling the truth. He tells the paparazzi that, on the day of the audition, he remarked a very strange thing about the so-called vet, when he came to speak to him before he took to the stage and, all the while, he didn't stutter.
Initially, Nick assumed Poe was so overwhelmed that he conquered the impediment but, upon later consideration, he thinks this should have been the first warning sign.
“I think he was so caught up in the moment he forgot to stutter,” Cannon tells the paparazzi.
Even so, Nick wants to hear what Poe also has to say before he passes judgment. From the brief interview (see the video below), it's clear that Nick is well aware of the hoopla surrounding the singing stuttering vet.
As we also reported over the weekend, Poe's family has been getting death threats from other vets for claiming he was injured in the way when he actually wasn't.
Word has it that he's so depressed that he hasn't left the house since his audition aired, and that the family even fears he might suicidal.
Below the Nick Cannon video is Timothy Poe's audition tape, just in case you didn't get the chance to see it until now.
