JON'S CELL: Milwaukee residents take added precautions, like using multiple online security passwords, to protect themselves. Measures like this prevent others from overtaking your finances and personal lives by pretending to be you. Defenses can fend off identity theft by strangers but may not prevent harm by people who know you best – family members.
A woman living out of state spent the last year trying to convince Wisconsin law enforcement agencies she was not a criminal. Records showed the woman had been pulled over by Lake Geneva officers and Walworth County sheriff’s deputies several times for traffic violations and drunk driving between 2011 and 2014.
The woman learned her driver’s license was suspended due to the alleged offenses. Her car insurance company responded by jacking up her premiums. A newspaper also reported the woman was charged with operating while intoxicated.
The woman had not been living or working in Wisconsin when the reported violations occurred, but she got little sympathy or help after phoning police. The accused woman was told there was nothing the district attorney in Walworth County could do. No action was taken until the woman showed up at the Lake Geneva Police Department to straighten out the mess.
The person pulled over by police supplied a name, address and birthdate after telling officers she was not carrying a driver’s license. Walworth County authorities, who are not equipped with mobile fingerprint units, took the driver at her word. Investigators eventually discovered the traffic violator was the accused woman’s estranged sister, who admitted she swapped identities to avoid jail time for a third OWI.
Law enforcement agencies finally moved to place the blame on the correct individual. The driver now faces felony charges for a white collar crime, along with all the other offenses wrongfully blamed on her sister.
False allegations can cause tremendous personal damage. Criminal defense attorneys help individuals clear their names.
Source: Fox 6 Now, “Woman accused of stealing her own sister’s identity: “Nobody should have to go through this”,” Meghan Dwyer and Stephen Davis, July 02, 2015
