tonight on "20/20," sometimes the biggest mansions hold the biggest secrets. family secrets. a brilliant wife and devoted mother, her husband covered in blood and nearly dead. but not just any husband, a west wing power player, leading advisor to president bush. only the wife saw his fury. what finally pushed her over the edge? for the first time, the battered woman behind the headlines. she spent years in hiding while

he took the fifth, dragging out the case. >> i will not respond. >> and finding a way to torture you. >> live to tell. plus, what family secret let this man fake his way into the e.r., then pretending to be a cop. the horrible truth that put his secret live into overdrive. when life imitated leo. playing doctor. tonight, family secrets. here now, elizabeth vargas and david muir. >> good evening. those family secrets you would never suspect. in the white house, he whispered to presidents, gave them advice. in his own house, he had plenty of reasons to keep his family secrets hidden.

but they all came spilling out when his wife went running for her life. >> it's a case making national headlines, but we've never heard from the socialite herself. here's amy robach tonight. >> reporter: a frozen night, a dark road, headlights. a heart pounding pedal-to-the-metal getaway. mary margaret farren and her wide-eyed little girls, a seven year old and a four month old baby. >> the baby. not buckled, in her pajamas on the passenger seat, and my older daughter was sitting in the back seat. >> reporter: a bmw, weaving past the mansions on wahackme road, new canaan, connecticut. they call their wealthy little town the next stop to heaven. but it is far from heaven this night. >> i go the way i know, which is toward the town, and to get toward people. and i don't pull into the first house, because i'm afraid he's going to pull in right behind

me. >> reporter: mary margaret, on the run from a brutal assault in her bedroom. the attacker, her husband, j. michael farren. >> it was horrific. i was covered in blood. >> reporter: what looked like a wonderful life, vanishing behind them. >> i looked in the rearview mirror and i saw it was black, it was dark. so i knew he wasn't behind, and then i thought, "okay, where do i go?" >> reporter: objects in that rearview mirror are stranger than they appear. a 12-year marriage to one of the most powerful men in washington. a life of privilege and prestige. a $5 million mansion in new canaan, one of the richest towns in america, with neighbors like harry connick jr. singer paul simon, and "scandal" star tony goldwyn. all that is behind her now. mary margaret has spent the five years since the attack living in hiding, still fearing for her life, but tonight agreeing to come out of the shadows, for

this first interview, ready to talk about the family secret that almost killed her. tell me why you want to share your story. >> i think when the severity of abuse gets to where i ended up with, most women in that situation never get to speak out because they're dead. but i felt it was just critical to speak out and to caution women in terms of getting involved with someone who shows these abusive tendencies. >> reporter: the story of this nearly fatal marriage begins more than a dozen years earlier with cherry blossoms, a springtime romance in the nation's capital. >> we started dating pretty quickly. and it was amazing. we had incredible conversations. and we went running together. and we would be out gardening at his house. i was drawn to him. and i thought he was intriguing. and i was captivated after some time. >> reporter: the captivating mr.

farren is a washington power-player. an attorney with an impressive resume. >> this guy was a serious lawyer. general counsel of xerox. worked in the bush administration. had held serious positions in government. this was a very senior, prominent attorney. >> reporter: a search of abc archives finds farren holding a news conference in the '90s. >> we had hoped that we'd see our overall trade imbalance go down below $100 billion. >> reporter: testifying before congress. >> i have prepared a written statement. >> reporter: appearing on the weekly abc news program, business world when he was an under secretary at the commerce department. >> last thing we want to see happen is for us jobs to be driven offshore. >> reporter: now with mary margaret by his side, they're a couple to be envied, an all-access pass to all the power and privilege the capitol has to offer. here there they are, posing with first lady hillary clinton after she had them over for tea at the white house.

and there's president bill clinton welcoming the farrens to movie night at the white house theater in 1999. a private screening of the horror movie "lake placid" featuring a giant man-eating crocodile. all the while, mary margaret says, just beneath the surface of her husband's public persona, lurked a scary dark side. >> he would just go into this rage, saying i had spoken too long to someone at a cocktail party. i kept thinking, he's so insecure because of our age. he's 13 years older than i am. >> reporter: and things do get better. or so it seems. >> things all of a sudden went really smoothly. but in hindsight, what i realized, amy, is that i had completely altered my behavior. i didn't go out with girlfriends. i made sure that i was reachable at all times.

i never stood too close to anyone at a cocktail party. i made sure i was attentive to him. and, so, you become so well behaved in his eyes. and things are really calm. >> reporter: and what was your wedding day like? >> it was horrible. he got very angry at me. he got very angry that i hadn't remembered to bring his mother's plane ticket. and i'm sitting on that altar thinking, "what am i doing?" >> reporter: "who am i marrying?" >> yeah. and i'm smiling and trying to make everything happy and turn it into a happy day. and i'm seriously sitting there thinking, "run. just run." >> reporter: instead, she stays. they have two daughters, and eventually trade washington for the big house in connecticut. the new first family of new canaan. >> he wanted to move back to connecticut. and i thought, "he's going to be happier. it's going to be a calmer --" >> reporter: the pressure is going to be off him. >> yeah. and then, he'll be nice. he'll be doing what he wants. he won't have this high-pressure job. i was so wrong. >> reporter: it got worse? >> so much worse.

so much worse. it was, like, a year of terror. >> reporter: the man who once worked in the white house, a tyrant in his own house. barking orders, compulsively obsessing over every detail of his wife and daughter's life. >> "don't touch this. wash your hands. take your shoes off." >> reporter: controlling. >> like, "don't eat that way," telling our daughter. like, "don't eat your food that way." and it was exhausting. i mean, there were so many rules. >> reporter: rules, and constant fear. >> and i just would say to him, "i think you're going to hit me eventually." and he would say, "oh, mary margaret, i would never, ever, ever hurt you." >> reporter: after years of agonizing, mary margaret makes a life changing decision. she decides to pull the plug on her dying marriage. but with a husband like hers, she knows she's also pulling the pin on a grenade. making sure she and the girls are out of the house, she has farren served with divorce papers. were you nervous about doing that?

>> i was terrified. i was so scared. and i made sure our older daughter was at school. and i took the baby and went to another mom's house and -- while he got served. >> reporter: did he know it was coming? did he have -- >> no. >> reporter: -- any idea? >> he did not know. >> reporter: and what was his reaction? >> he called me and he said, "are you going to come home so we can discuss this?" and i was crying on the phone. and i said, "i'm scared to come home." and i said, "is it safe for me to come home?" and he said, "yes." >> reporter: when we come back, mary margaret and the girls come home. you go into the master bedroom and what happens? stay with us. you know i tried e bargain paper towels but i had to use so many sheets per spill the roll just disappeared. i knew i should've bought bounty bounty is 2x more absorbent and strong when wet. just look how much longer bounty lasts versus one of those bargain brand towels. and that's a good deal.

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"20/20" continues. once again, amy robach. >> reporter: at the $5 million farren mansion in new canaan, connecticut, trouble is brewing, as surely as another winter storm. mary margaret farren is increasingly worried about her husband's tantrums and explosive anger. j. michael farren had risen to the highest levels of government.

negotiating international trade agreements at the commerce department, representing the president on legal matters, general counsel at xerox. his career, a brilliant success. but his marriage, a miserable failure. what was the final straw where you said, "that's it. i have to file divorce papers?" >> our older daughter was growing up and, challenging him but then, also, feeling his rage. starting to see her take the same strategies that i would to avoid triggering his rage just broke my heart. >> reporter: after she has him served with divorce papers, farren talks mary margaret into coming home with the girls. >> i did fear that he would slap me or push me or do something. >> reporter: you didn't think your life was going to be in danger? >> i thought i could manage it. >> reporter: but, she has an escape plan. i know that when you went back home, you were strategic. you thought, just in case things

don't go well, you put your keys in your car. >> i did. i thought he would fly into a rage. and i did not want to have the children there during that, if that happened. and i wanted to be able to leave quickly. >> reporter: the divorce ignites j. michael farren. two nights later, he attacks. you put the children to bed, your baby in her crib. and then, you go into the master bedroom and he's there in his pajamas? >> yes. >> reporter: and what happens? >> he came at me, he put his hands out and he put his hands around my neck and tackled me to the floor and started slamming my head into the floor while he was strangling me. and he's ripping out my hair, i felt like i was being scalped. as he was slamming my head into the floor, he said, "i'm killing you." >> reporter: with his children

just down the hall in their beds. the former deputy counsel to the president of the united states then begins clubbing his wife with a metal flashlight. >> and i thought, "i'm dying." and then i was thinking, "i've got to hold it together, i have to stay conscious so i can save the girls. i have to get help here." >> reporter: mary margaret pleads with her husband. his reaction is icy. >> i said, "mike, we can work this out. please stop, we can work this out." and he said, "you're just saying that because you're scared." and he continued to beat me with the flashlight. and at that moment i realized this isn't going to end except when i'm dead. >> reporter: i mean, there was no way you could get free. >> he was so goal-oriented and so purposeful. >> reporter: and so calm, it sounds like. >> yeah.

and that's what made it so chilling. and then i'm laying on the floor, and falling into unconsciousness again. and he says he's going to the kitchen to get a knife, to kill himself, is what he said. and i thought, "well, it is probably meant for me." >> reporter: then and there, mary margaret, nearly blinded by blood, decides to save herself, and her girls. >> and by the grace of god, or angels, i just popped up and i ran to our daughter's room and i said, "to the car, right now. daddy's trying to kill me." >> reporter: you got the baby? >> i got -- i got the baby, i held her like a football under my arm, and i went down the back stairs, like, tripping all the way. >> reporter: they make it to the car. >> thank god those keys were there. >> reporter: out of the garage, and down the road to safety. up until that moment, you felt like you were being chased. >> i did, i couldn't even look in the rearview mirror, because

i could barely stay on the road. >> reporter: fighting unconsciousness, swerving into the first house with lights on. >> and i put on the horn, and i stumbled to the door. and that incredible family that lived in that house, they opened the door and i said, "my husband tried to kill me, and my daughters are in the car." and then i just collapsed inside the door. >> i heard a loud screeching outside, and then a -- the blare of a horn. >> reporter: barbara and john achenbaum will later testify about the late night callers they will never forget. >> there was a window next to the door, and in the window i saw a really, really horrifying sight. i mean, it was like out of a, out of a horror movie. >> had blood all over her face, her hair. >> her hair was kind of wild and full of -- and there was blood all over her face and on her clothes. >> and she, began screaming to me. >> "my husband's trying to kill me, i'm going to die." >> she kind of collapsed into my arms and then onto the ground. >> she almost like melted into the floor.

she was very agitated and she kept saying, you know, "my husband tried to kill me. are my kids okay?" i can just see this pool of red blood expanding quickly on the floor. and then i see my daughter, and she tried to step over the blood, and she said, "mommy," and i thought that was the last time i would hear her voice. >> reporter: and then when you woke up in that hospital, despite everything you had been through, you say you felt relief. my mom said i said to her, "mom, it's over. we're free." >> reporter: police photograph the clothes she was wearing, the pink robe. the officers so stunned by her injuries, they decide to video tape her right in the emergency room. we must caution you, the images are graphic. >> he was strangling me hard.

and kept hitting me and hitting me with the flashlight. >> reporter: you had a tremendous amount of injuries. >> a broken jaw, i had fractures on my cheeks, and on my forehead. i had huge lacerations and wounds on my head, they put big staples down my forehead. >> reporter: she suffered brain damage, and ptsd. even her smile is permanently altered. >> oh, god. this side of my face -- my smile doesn't go up on this side anymore. a lot of work, physical therapy, was done because there was such scar tissue. and i worked on that for a long time. >> reporter: mary margaret spends six days in the hospital. prosecutors charge farren with assault and attempted murder. when we come back, farren facing lawsuits and criminal charges, a man used to barking out orders, answering tough questions. what he has to say for himself. >> what you were intending on doing is killing her, in this brutal way, isn't that right mr. farren?

>> reporter: but while he may look as guilty as the blood on his hands in the police photos, bringing j. michael farren to justice gets a jolt when he stuns everyone by choosing a dark horse defense attorney. himself. >> there's a famous phrase in the law that anyone who represents himself has a fool for a client, and typically that's true. but, in this case, he may have been no fool at all. >> reporter: stay with us. i discovered a convenient way to moisturize every day. new nivea in-shower body lotion. first i wash... then i apply it to my wet skin. it moisturizes instantly. and lasts for more than 24 hours. then i quickly rinse off. my skin feels amazingly smooth with no sticky feel. so, i get dressed... ..and go. now i enjoy smooth skin every day. new nivea in-shower body lotion in the body lotion aisle.

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"20/20" continues with family secrets. once more, amy robach. >> reporter: the farren mansion in new canaan, connecticut, stands vacant an empty monument to a marriage and a lifestyle that seemed charmed until it all ended in violence. the family gone, the secrets out. >> a former white house lawyer charged with trying to murder his wife.

>> reporter: mary margaret farren, is in hiding with their daughters, one 7, the other just an infant. recovering from a terrible beating from her husband, as she tells police the night of the attack -- afraid he'll come back to finish the job. >> i'm convinced when he gets out he going to try to kill me and the girls. >> reporter: her abuser, her husband, is not hiding, he's not even in jail. out on $750,000 bond, the lifelong washington bureaucrat now causing gridlock in the legal proceedings against him for five long years. >> it was absolutely terrifying my older daughter. she just was so worried i was going to be killed. we lived in hiding. >> reporter: farren, the clarence darrow of delay, filing motions, winning continuances, provoking an astonishing 68 court appearances. slowing not only the criminal case against him, but also a civil lawsuit, brought by his now ex-wife, mary margaret, suing him over the terrible beating he had given her. how difficult was it for mary

margaret to have this drawn out for years and years and years? >> it was torture for her. >> reporter: farren becomes a regular at the stamford courthouse, hobnobbing with marshals and journalists. acting more like a defense attorney than a defendant. as they prepare their civil lawsuit, mary margaret's attorneys videotape a deposition with the dapper former white house operative. >> i'm going to show you a picture which we're going to mark as exhibit three. and that's a picture of your wife mary margaret farren, isn't it? reporter: but under hours of questioning, farren, still facing an eventual criminal trial, takes the fifth. >> i will not respond. i'm not going to respond. >> reporter: 94 times. >> what we see in that picture, that was caused by what you did

to her, isn't that right? >> i'm not going to respond based upon my fifth amendment rights. >> reporter: farren later fires his lawyers, deciding to defend himself. but then doesn't show up for the civil trial. >> this is a case being presented by one side with a jury there, with no one on the other side. >> reporter: farren sends a bizarre message to the court, claiming he's been involuntarily committed for psychiatric treatment. >> he never intended on winning. he just wanted to game the system and get delays. >> reporter: the trial goes on without him, the jury punishing farren with a $28 million verdict. then, nearly five years after the attack, the criminal trial. and another surprise. farren telling the judge he is suicidal and can't bear the strain of attending this trial either. >> mr. farren is not with us here today. >> reporter: and the second trial marches along with a

missing defendant. mr. farren may be absent. >> state calls mary margaret farren. >> reporter: but his brave ex-wife, finding the courage to revisit the worst night of her life. >> he was on top of me and he was squeezing my neck. strangling me and slamming my head into the floor. >> reporter: what was it like to take the stand and testify? >> it's always hard to relive it. you would hope it would dull over time, but it doesn't. but it's also a day of empowerment in the sense of you're transferring the responsibility this bad -- of what happened, this terrible thing, to him. and it is a day to speak out. >> i want to show you what's been marked as state's exhibit

37 for identification. >> reporter: the peak moment of excruciating drama, she peers into an evidence bag. you see the horror in her eyes. >> that's the flashlight mr. farren, the defendant, used to beat me. >> reporter: it doesn't take the jury long, just a day. >> all right, gentlemen, i have received a note from the jury. we have reached a verdict. >> reporter: farren, like it or not, ordered into court on judgment day -- forced to listen to the verdict. >> what say you, mr. foreperson, is he guilty or not of the crime of criminal attempt to commit murder -- >> reporter:uilty. what was it like when the verdicts came down? >> i collapsed and cried, it was such a relief. >> reporter: at sentencing, judge richard comerford gives farren 15 years, and a tongue lashing.

>> he is being sentenced for the horrific act that occurred here. you don't take it upon yourself to mete out justice. especially not a human being who's dedicated his professional life to the law. especially a human being who professed love for this woman, and for his children. >> reporter: the judge orders farren is never to see his daughters again. if he serves his full sentence he'll be nearly 80 years old when he's released. is 15 years just punishment for what he did? >> no. i don't see how you put a time frame on something as atrocious and egregious. >> reporter: and he's never apologized for what -- >> no. >> reporter: he's done? >> no. >> reporter: farren is appealing his criminal conviction and the civil judgment against him. do you feel safe now, today? >> i do. >> reporter: mary margaret has a

mission now. telling women, don't ignore the warning signs. >> when you're a young woman and you meet this charismatic guy who's so charming and just adores you, but he shows that jealous rage, you know what? think about what your life is going to be like, and you think you can handle it. and you know what? you can't. if something doesn't seem right when you're with someone initially, listen to yourself. there's a quote that says, "when someone shows you who they are, believe them." >> as she says, it can happen to anyone. if you're a victim, go to the national abuse hotline, you can call them at >> and we're holding

discussion with an expert starting now. use #abc2020. and what if you found out a fake doctor is treating you at hospital? next, leo played a fake doctor in a movie. what if it happened in real life, and it didn't stop there. posing as a cop, too? but what terrible family secrets was he running from? when "20/20" returns. ! give her that sparkle she's always dreamed of... with fine and silver jewelry... diamond rings... and earrings that dazzle. fine fragrance for her and him... and timepieces for all occasions you'll save even more when you shop late friday

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out, telling matt gutman the family secret that led to a life of fantasy and crime. >> reporter: meet matthew scheidt. at 21, he's already lived a lifetime's worth of twisted tales, fake identities and family secrets that play like something spun out of hollywood. a case crazy enough to be a movie, if the movie hadn't already been made. "catch me if you can" with leonardo dicaprio playing a chameleon con man, pretending to be, among many other things, a doctor. >> dr. harris, do you concur? >> reporter: the modern take of a faker in a hospital happened at osceola regional medical center in kissimmee, florida. an impostor in the emergency room. august, 2011. matthew scheidt, then a fresh faced young teenager reports for duty in the e.r. in scrubs, a stethoscope, and a badge identifying him as a p.a.

a physician assistant, as close as you can come to being a doctor without an m.d. >> i'm a doctor. >> like dicaprio in the movie, scheidt oozes confidence. >> he's kind of charming. >> he is charming. he's very charming. >> reporter: unlike dicaprio's character, who gets queasy in the emergency room. scheidt is drawn to the action. >> he performed procedures on patients. >> reporter: reporter nancy alvarez, with channel 9 in orlando. >> this kid touched patients. this kid held a child who was getting stitches. >> reporter: after a month someone at the hospital finally gets suspicious of the kid carrying the badge and stethoscope. >> i appreciate you coming down. >> reporter: scheidt is quickly transferred from the emergency room to a police interrogation room. >> one of the techs had to run out of the room to go get something and i was told to take over cpr by a physician. >> reporter: so confident he can talk his way out of anything, scheidt waives his right to a lawyer and begins to tell his

tale. >> i told them it could be kidney stones, could be kidney infection, could be uti. >> he just was talking, talking, talking, and talking. >> i had an interest and still kind of somewhat have an interest in the medical field. >> reporter: an interest? yes. a license, no. he is not a physician assistant. what he is, is a 17-year-old kid with a summer job at a doctor's office. >> i just did clerical work and worked with a physician. >> reporter: he used to run errands to the hospital, so he asked them for an id badge and somehow obtained the one that let him prowl the e.r. for weeks. scheidt tells cops his medical knowledge comes from playing games on his phone. >> like "speed anatomy" and stuff like that so i could learn all the anatomy and stuff. >> reporter: when ultimately confronted by the police, the

teen has the temerity to blame the charade on the hospital for handing him that incorrect id badge. >> let's even say that i said i was a p.a. are you that stupid that you're just going to put me in the system as that without any credentials or any paperwork or nothing? >> reporter: the osceola medical center told "20/20" changes have been made and, "at our hospital our badging process is significantly more secure." >> it felt right, like i was supposed to be there and i was supposed to be learning by them and they're supposed to be teaching me. >> reporter: matthew ended up getting attorneys after all, mark eiglarsh among them. >> i believe that matthew did everything that he did with good intentions like holding a patient's hand while she got sutured, was designed to show love, to help out. >> reporter: the police interrogation ends and matthew is charged but then, something inexplicable. so matthew makes bail and promptly skips it, and his next

misadventure takes him here, to south beach in an old school crown victoria that looks a lot like this one. and that's when the wheels really come off matthew's fantasy ride. it turns out he has another presumed profession -- cop. and appears to be practicing it a little too hard. >> pulled up next to a real cop with all the confidence of a real cop. but he's just a kid pretending to be one. >> reporter: when he tells the undercover cop to put on his seat belt, let's just say it doesn't go over too well. >> and that person said "why, are you a police officer?" and they claimed that he said yes and that he acted in a way consistent with someone who was a law enforcement officer. >> reporter: busted, again. this police photo captures the cache of cop gear in the car. radio, taser, a badge and under the front seat, a loaded gun. >> miami beach cops arrested scheidt after he pulled next to an officer in a white crown vic and told him to buckle his seat belt. >> reporter: in august 2012, he goes on trial for, among other things, practicing medicine

without a license and impersonating a physician assistant. >> i was sitting just a few feet away from him and there were tears in his eyes and he looked petrified. and i felt for him for a moment, and then i wondered, hmm. could this be real? could he be performing again? >> we the jury find the defendant guilty of impersonating a physician's assistant as charged. >> reporter: convicted on four felony charges, he would serve a year in jail, most of it in solitary confinement. >> because this was a high-profile case, i think that the corrections department thought that it would be best to keep him separate from the population. >> reporter: with the young pretender behind bars, one question still lingers. why? what was so wrong with matthew scheidt that another character or characters had to be created? when we come back, the impish impostor finally breaks his silence. >> they were just secrets and just lies and all the way around it was. >> reporter: revealing his

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"20/20" continues. once again, matt gutman. >> reporter: after a year in prison, catch-me-if-you-can imposter matthew scheidt, now a 21-year-old bleach blond, is about to do something that doesn't come naturally. where did you think your life would lead? >> definitely not where it is now. >> reporter: speak truthfully about the family secrets which drove him ito a world of make-believe. >> i would make up all these stories to away from my reality, to get away from what my life is. >> reporter: to really solve the riddle of matthew scheidt, you need to drive down the back roads of a central florida town called st. cloud. it is here, in this humble trailer park, where we found this man restoring a 1950 buick. >> i love to tinker.

one of my passions is working on old cars. >> reporter: his name? matthew scheidt sr. that's him in the picture with his son, the future fabulist. >> no one has a perfect childhood. we all, we've all had probably rough patches. >> reporter: but some patches are rougher than others. matthew sr. separated from mother kelly when their son was five. for years, this rickety trailer was what matthew jr. reluctantly called home. >> every time i'd go to the, walk to the bus, you know, i'd make up these little fibs to the kids that i was in school with that, oh no, i don't live there. that's just grandma's house. i live in a nice house across the street. >> reporter: so, you were from the trailer park, but you didn't want anybody to think that you were from the trailer park? >> yeah, yeah. and that was, that was a secret that i even kept, you know, every single day. >> reporter: kelly struggled with drug addiction. matthew's childhood memory seared by the night he witnessed her arrest. >> i end up seeing her car

actually pull in, and behind her car there was three, four, five other suvs and other vehicles, swarmed out and pulled her out. she was arrested for meth. >> reporter: the boy, convinced that life here is nothing but dead-end streets, becomes a reverse peter pan, eager to skip childhood and grow up immediately. >> he grew up very fast and without having the connection that we would have typically with our parents. his childhood had a huge impact on the person that he became. >> he didn't allow himself to be a kid enough. and it backfired, backfired on all of us. >> reporter: to hide his shame matthew started weaving alternate realities. so you created this, this world of lies to hide this family secret? >> yeah. >> reporter: you said that your father was a police officer, and that your mother was a nurse. >> those were the two careers that i really liked.

>> reporter: at age 13, he joined the sheriff's which gives kids official ids and teaches them the basics of police work. minimum age, 14. >> i ended up lying even about my age, going into the explorer program. i did ride along patrol time with other deputies. >> reporter: matthew ended up leaving his mother. and his father gave him a place to stay on his own, in this trailer park. by age 16 he was out of school, taking high school courses online. his father saying he didn't see signs of the trouble ahead. >> you can't fix what you don't know is broken. it's just that simple. and i didn't know anything was broken. >> i thought i was so mature and i thought i had everything figured and i was just the, the cocky 16-year-old. i had no boundaries. >> reporter: no boundaries either in matthew's pursuit of his other great passion, medicine. he'd been volunteering at a local hospital starting to

assume the new identity he craved. >> i saw the lingo and stuff there, and then also, you know, why i would go home and study. >> reporter: was this books, internet? >> books or, you know, television shows. "grey's anatomy" and "e.r." i think were the two top picks. >> reporter: and then did you go to the hospital and actually use the lingo? >> i'd probably put out a word or two to make it sound like i knew what i was talking about, even though i had no idea. >> reporter: fast forward to 2011, when the story turns from fun to felonious. matthew, now a 17-year-old medical file clerk, procures that precious hospital id as a "physician assistant." >> i lied and said that i was a student, i was a p.a. student. >> reporter: but you weren't a p.a. student? >> no. >> reporter: and there's your golden ticket to any place in the hospital. >> right. >> reporter: for the first time in his life, matthew scheidt is a somebody. a young professional, paid in the priceless currencies of respect and responsibility. and when the imposter is called on during an emergency, he doesn't miss a beat. >> a patient's in there -- >> reporter: code blue, right, this is a code blue?

>> that's when i started doing cpr on her. >> reporter: did you know what to do? >> i was cpr certified, so i had an idea. >> reporter: i mean, you must have been terrified, you're thinking to yourself -- i have this person's life literally in my hands. >> yeah. >> if he's seeking power and control, what could be a more powerful position than having a doctor say to you, "save this person. >> reporter: matthew's charade continues over the course of a month. >> i was overzealous. i was eager to learn, and that was my way to learn. i wanted to learn now. i didn't want to wait. >> reporter: at any point did you think, i'm living a lie, and i'm probably doing something that's highly illegal? >> i had no idea that, you know, by just going there. i'm a student, that can't be illegal. >> reporter: but it is illegal, something he rudely discovers when he's finally busted. taken in for that long interrogation. >> i had an interest. i still have an interest in the medical field. >> reporter: that he played doctor is a head scratcher, but his second stunt, skipping bail and playing cop in miami beach,

is gobsmacking. describe what, the moment when that undercover officer pulled you over in miami. >> i couldn't believe it was happening again. of all things, i was the same thing, the same impersonating thing. why, why did you put this in your, you know, why did you put yourself in that position? >> reporter: the seized evidence may provide a clue. in the car, along with that radio, taser, and loaded gun scheidt says belonged to a friend. cops discover something else, his old id card from the sherriff's explorer program he'd joined years ago. >> a badge is an identity. but for a kid a badge can mean it all. >> reporter: so what was so wrong with matthew scheidt that another character or characters had to be created? >> i think it just had to do with always wanting to do better and always trying to be successful and just rushing things. >> reporter: matthew, charged as an adult. served a tough year behind bars.

but he says prison, for all its hardships, provided some things he'd always craved. order. focus. purpose. >> i learned so much stuff being in there, it's, you can't even fathom. >> reporter: really? >> everything was ripped away, and it literally gave me the chance to rebuild myself. >> reporter: today, matthew is trying to make amends with those he hurt the most, his family. his mother is clean. his parents are back together. >> i love my son. i love him dearly. you know, and to this, i, we have a better relationship now than we've ever had, you know. >> i never had the relationship but now i mean i have most, the best relationship that i ever had with my father and with my mother. >> reporter: for now, he's living in his own apartment, 40 miles and a world away from his childhood trailer home. and he has a job, working in sales. what else? does your history as a serial liar, does it ever help you in your job? >> no, because i have promised myself that i will not lie. i've built my life. i've built my own reality, and i'm fine with my reality.

>> so, what do you think of his explanation? enough reason to start impersonating professionals? sa little differently. and, by some miracle... she actually said "yes." to me. the charmed memories collection at kay jewelers, featuring open hearts and new disney frozen. get this free bracelet or a charm valued up to forty-five dollars with any charmed memories purchase of $99.99 or more. at kay, the number one jewelry store in america. and she will be the best mom ever.

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more rain and wind from round one of two strong storms. >> next, new video of damage and live doppler 7hd is tracking what is next.