Timothy Michael Poe
‘STUTTER’ STEP: “America’s Got Talent” contestant Timothy Michael Poe claimed a war injury caused him to stutter, and he began singing as therapy. (
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He’s got talent — and a lot of explaining to do.
Sgt. Timothy Michael Poe, a country-Western-singing National Guard veteran who knocked the socks off judges on “America’s Got Talent” Monday night, is a stutterer who claims to have suffered a brain injury during a 2009 tour of duty in Afghanistan — but military officials said yesterday he had never been wounded.
Poe, whose silky smooth rendition of Garth Brooks’ “If Tomorrow Never Comes” left dozens in the studio audience crying, said he began to stutter three years ago when he was hurt attempting to shield his men from a rocket-propelled-grenade blast and now can speak clearly only when he sings.
But the Minnesota National Guard said yesterday that Poe was never injured in the line of duty, nor did he serve in the military for 14 years as he claimed on national TV.
“Sgt. Timothy Michael Poe served in the Minnesota Army National Guard from Dec. 3, 2002, until May 26, 2011, and performed as a supply specialist,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Olson, a spokesman for the Minnesota guard.
“His military records indicate that he served with the Minnesota National Guard in Kosovo from Oct. 10, 2007, until July 15, 2008, and was deployed to Afghanistan from July 28, 2009, to Aug. 30, 2009,” Olson said.
“Sgt. Poe’s official military records do not indicate that he was injured by a grenade in combat while serving in Afghanistan in 2009, as he reports,” said the spokesman.
Poe’s ex-wife, Kelly Ballard, said she has never heard her former spouse stutter like he did on the show.
“There were no combat injuries,” said Ballard from her Texas home. “I think he developed a ‘feel sorry for me’ stutter.”
In a video detailing Poe’s back story, filmed at the Austin, Texas, auditions featured on Monday’s show, the aspiring country singer said that in Afghanistan he volunteered to clear buildings and help rescue wounded people, and one day someone armed with a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher opened fire.
“I saw it coming down and by the time I turned and went to jump on top of my guys, I yell, ‘Grenade!’ and the blast had hit me,” Poe said.
He claimed that had he not been injured, he might never have discovered his singing voice. But Ballard said years earlier, he was the lead singer in a band called “Crawlspace.”
Show producers said they first learned only yesterday that Poe had been lying.
Poe could not be reached for comment yesterday.