Location: Henderson, Nevada, USA
I am a corporate professional looking down the barrel at 50. I have no criminal record save for a DUI when I was 24 and stupid. My sister, on the other hand, is a career criminal. She has 20+ arrests over the past 10 years, mainly for petit larceny but ramping up to conspiracy to transfer a stolen vehicle. She’s currently locked up in county awaiting sentencing due to breaking her probation for the stolen vehicle charge, which comes with a year long suspended prison sentence.
My sister and I were issued our SSNs at the same time and they are one number apart. As such, it’s easy to know eachother’s SSNs. My sister has used this to her advantage during her life of crime. She’s given my name at least once before during a petit larceny charge.
My sister and I look nothing alike. I’m 5’9” and 180 pounds with naturally red hair. My sister is 5’5”, 135 and has dyed her hair black for 20 years.
Two days ago, my mother received a postcard in the mail alerting that I have a warrant out for my arrest. We immediately knew what happened. My sister used my info again to try to escape prosecution.
I am currently looking for a new job. I’m trying to find my last professional position and am looking to make more money. Having this on my record in addition to the first time she did this to me is humiliating and might be precluding me from attaining the job I want.
I will be pressing charges against my sister for using my identity.
However, I am also angry at the police for doing this to me twice. What is the due diligence for someone who has no ID? Why do I have to deal with the legal ramifications of this including taking time off work to go to court and paying fees to seal these records? How did the citing officers not notice that my sister was using my information? I feel like a ball has been dropped by the department multiple times and it’s materially affecting my life. I’m scared to drive because if someone hits me, the cops run my name and I go to jail.
I understand that my sister is the most culpable person here, and I’m gonna fight to make her pay for this with her time, but do I have a case against the city or police department? I know qualified immunity makes it difficult, but since this has happened to me twice what are the chances I can at least make them admit they made a mistake and compensate me for that?