Upate page 3:LONG:Need Legal Advice, or any kind of advice would be welcome!!

[TeresaNJ]

Kramer posted: I'm guessing you live in NJ. There is no motor vehicle statute in NJ that in anyway resembles "prowling".

The summons says Complaint TP 2006 151960 Offense: ZC:33-2.1B Prowling Public Places-CDS Relate.

 

[barkley]

there are laws in some cities and states that do require that adults be in possession of picture i.d. at all times-and if asked to provide it must do so for law enforcement officials. so i would check the local laws to see if that is a requirement and if so pursue finding out weather the boy provided a false id or why the police let him go without an id.

you might also want to check what the laws are regarding birth records in your town/county (or the town your son was born)-in some ANYONE can request a certified copy-and with a certified copy can make application for a social secruity card (or a replacement of the original) and a driver's licence (most places that have stopped this practice but there are still some pretty slack enforcers working in some offices).

changing names does'nt help much because everything will officialy still be cross referenced (computer wise) under the old name so you still end up with the same problems. dh went to school with (same birth year) as a person with an identical first and last name. the guy had a huge police record as well as evictions and credit problems. we took to using dh's middle initial on all occasions, and always pointed out to any landlords, credit companies, government entities that they might encounter this other person with the same name/birth year/city of residence and to please cross check on social security numbers and actual date of birth.

you can notify the major credit reporting agencies that if anyone makes application for credit or renting under your son's name they must do a confirming check with you or your son because an individual has been utilizing his name fraudulently.

 

[kmp1191]

Personally, I wouldn't wait until Friday to contact the police department. I would do it now so a report would be on file for the next time Thomas does something stupid. Let the lawyer know that you've filed a report and see what he says from there. I'm sure there would be some way for you to press charges against Thomas for identity theft.
Also, as the wife of a police officer, I'm certainly glad that not everyone thinks like you do as far as suing the officer for doing his job. You would not believe how many people my husband has come in contact with that use false information. It's a daily occurance. You are barking up the wrong tree if you want to sue the officer or the department because some thug is using your son's information.
File for identity theft, get your son a new ID and have the police department and credit bureaus red flag the name as Identity Theft Victim.

 

[Kramer]

Kramer posted: I'm guessing you live in NJ. There is no motor vehicle statute in NJ that in anyway resembles "prowling".

The summons says Complaint TP 2006 151960 Offense: ZC:33-2.1B Prowling Public Places-CDS Relate.

Its 2C:33-2.1b not ZC...


2C is the Criminal Code in NJ and and 33-2.1b is the statute he violated of the criminal code. Its not a traffic ticket - its a criminal charge. Its a crime that basically means that you were wandering around in a known drug area for no legitimate reason.

 

[Kramer]

It also says "notice of proposed suspension of driving privileges for failure to appear". I have no idea if Thomas was driving or not.

The suspension is for not appearing in court on the original charge. It has nothing to do with whether or not he was driving. Basically they are threatenting to suspend his license because Thomas failed to show up in court.

 

[TeresaNJ]

kmp1191, I'm sorry if I offended you, I'm sure being a police officer is an extremely difficult job, and being the wife of one must be equally as difficult. I just feel that if the police officer is not going to bother verifying the information they are getting then they are essentially wasting their time, and mine in this instance, not to mention my money. Why bother issuing a ticket? Obviously Thomas is most likely going to get away with this, as I doubt the officer in question will remember what Thomas looked like, although he looks nothing like my son. I don't even know when this event occured. I'm sorry, but this is a major inconvenience for my family, and I am angry that anyone can be falsely identified because no one took the time to verify Thomas' identity. For God's sake, he was looking to buy drugs, I'm sure the police officer thought he was a pillar of society so he must be telling the truth .

 

[TeresaNJ]

Its 2C:33-2.1b not ZC...


2C is the Criminal Code in NJ and and 33-2.1b is the statute he violated of the criminal code. Its not a traffic ticket - its a criminal charge. Its a crime that basically means that you were wandering around in a known drug area for no legitimate reason.

Kramer, this upsets me even more then, as I don't believe Thomas was arrested. He has been in jail before, so they must have his fingerprints. Therefore, if he was arrested they would have known it wasn't my son. This is what I mean when I say the officer contributed to the problem at hand by not arresting Thomas and taking him to the station. This wasn't a simple traffic violation.

 

[kmp1191]

Are you sure that Thomas doesn't have a fake drivers license? You know, his picture with your sons information? Again, that happens all the time. To me, that would be the logical reason as to why the police officer took his word for who he was. Also, when they are on the scene, the police officer does not have access to fingerprint files. Was he taken into custody and arrested, or just given the summons to appear in court? Again, I would file a police report for Identity Theft and get your son a new ID.
Also, sorry if I was a little snarky...I just get sick of it always being the cops fault. They are doing their job, to the best of their ability. They are risking their lives for us and I get a little....bent....when people start in about suing the cop because they feel they've been "wronged". It would be like going the Walmart and suing the cashier for them not having the right brand of toilet paper.

 

[TeresaNJ]

I don't see how Thomas could have a fake driver's license with my son's ID as my son doesn't have a driver's license. This is why I'm so aggravated. I truly do not want to ever criticize a police officer, but I think if Thomas didn't produce ID while attempting to look for drugs, and was ticketed, then I'm angry that now my son is being put through this. If he produced a license with my son's name, then it should have been found false when the officer called it in.

I do understand how you feel about the constant criticism of police officers after risking their lives every day. I hear plenty of criticism about nurses all the time, no matter what you do, it's never enough.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record though. I'm just so very angry that we are being put through this again. Thanks all for listening.

 

[Kramer]

Kramer, this upsets me even more then, as I don't believe Thomas was arrested. He has been in jail before, so they must have his fingerprints. Therefore, if he was arrested they would have known it wasn't my son. This is what I mean when I say the officer contributed to the problem at hand by not arresting Thomas and taking him to the station. This wasn't a simple traffic violation.

You are making a lot of assumptions about a system that you admittedly know little about. You are ignoring my advice and the advice of everyone else here which is to go to the police and make a report of identiity theft.

You really don't know if Thomas was arrested or not. What you do know is that he received a criminal charge. There are two scenarios that could have played out:

#1 The majority of police departments in NJ would have arrested any person that they charged with "prowling" or wandering in a drug area. He would have been brought to a police station and finger printed and photographed. A small percentage of police stations have computer finger print scanners that send finger prints to the state police. The police get back the results electronically in 20 minutes and would know if someone is lying about their name. But most departments don't have this technology and they use the standard inked finger print card that is mailed DAYS later to the state police and WEEKS or MONTHS later they get a reply back about who the finger prints belong to. Only then would the police know if someone lied about their name.

#2 A very very small percentage of police departments would have detained Thomas at the scene and then immediately released him after putting the criminal charge on desk ticket that looks similar to a motor vehicle ticket. In this case there are no finger prints taken at all. This process used usually reserved for people that have flawless identification, so I dount that Thomas was handled in this manner. I'm pretty certain that he was handled in the manner of #1 above.

In either case, the police did nothing wrong. Thomas is at fault here and you can remedy the situation by making a police report and signing a complaint for identity theft. Unfortunately, the police are an easy target for your frustration, but the real culprit here is Thomas. Stop complaining and get down the police and make a report.

 

[TeresaNJ]

I am not ignoring anyone's advice, I am going to the lawyer on Friday morning for his advice, and then will proceed. It's not like I can just take off of work to go to Camden to file a police report. I also do not want to make any mistakes with how this is handled. I take offense to your blowing this off as if it's a normal case of identity theft. We're not talking credit card charges, this is a criminal offense my son is being accused of. Sorry, but I think I have plenty to complain about.

Also, I admit I have little knowledge of police procedure, etc., that is why I came here to ask for advice. As far as blaming someone, I guess that is human nature, and you are totally right, Thomas is the culprit and deserves all the blame, but I DO believe that the current system we have for dealing with these repeat offenders sucks big time. Maybe you wouldn't be so forgiving of the way this was handled if this was YOUR son being accused of this crime.

 

[Disney Doll]

Aagin, with your son's more fragile mental state, we all understand that this situation is much more "trying" for him & you than it might be if his particular circumstances were different.

If it were my child whose name was being used, I would most certainly be upset, regardless of what my child's psychological state was.

But again, to fault a police officer at the scene of the crime because he/she does not have access to all the records, fingerprints and IDs of every possible perpetrator is not the issue. The issue is that Thomas is a criminal, has been using your son's name in his illegal activities, and you need to get that informaiton flagged somehow in the legal system so that when your son's name comes up, the police and other law enforcement agencies know enough to do extra background checks etc. to make sure that who they are arresting is not TeresaNJs Son, but is really Thomas Criminal, even if Thomas Criminal gives the name of TeresaNJs Son.

Your choice to go to an attorney to see how this should be done is a good one. I would also consider speaking to the police department in your town and perhaps some of the surrounding towns to let them know that this occurs. In this case, documentation is your best friend. Similar to someone who has been a victim of identity theft, your son's name will need to be attached to a lot of information so when Thomas Criminal pulls his antics, there's info, documentation and resources for law enforcement to follow.

Unfortunately though, this is going to probably be an ongoing issue, since Thomas can move anywhere in the country and give your son's name and get a fake ID or make a fake drivers license. When I was in high school, there was a kid who made a pretty decent living off of getting 17 year olds fake drivers licenses so they could get into bars and I would have defied anyone to determine that it was fake. Criminals are usually pretty smart at beating the system.

 

[phillybeth]

He has been in jail before, so they must have his fingerprints.

It takes time to ID someone through fingerprints- even if they took them when he was arrested, it could take weeks for those prints to be linked to his prior arrests/convictions.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Thanks guys for your continued words of support and advice. I was up half the night last night worrying about this. My son was doing so much better recently, and was actually thinking about renewing his driver's license. Now I'm a nervous wreck about how this is going to play out. Since my son doesn't drive, he has had a hard time making any money, but was selling some of his collectibles on ebay, and since he knows so much about gaming, was writing articles about game systems/games, etc. for online gaming boards. He was even invited to go to San Francisco a few months ago for the launch of the xbox 360, as someone from Microsoft read some of his review articles and was impressed enough to invite him to test the system before the launch so he could write about it. Unfortunately he couldn't bring himself to go, even though my husband told him he would go with him. Anxiety is such a crippling disease, especially to your self-confidence and feelings of self worth. We haven't applied for SSI or anything like that yet, because I keep hoping and praying somehow he will make a breakthrough, so he lives with us, and we pretty much support him, but he does things for us around the house, babysits the animals when we go away, etc. Alot of people who don't understand anxiety think he is just lazy and doesn't want to work. As if anyone would want to live this way! Now this happens!!

I know in the grand scheme of things this is small potatoes, things could always be so much worse. I've always felt that if my son's illness is the worst thing we had to deal with then we were doing pretty good. I guess I'm more scared than anything.

 

[Maleficent13]

I just wanted to offer you unequivical support, with no debate. I can't imagine how horrible this is, and I would be a wreck. Much luck to you and your son.

 

[TeresaNJ]

Well, we had our appointment with the lawyer yesterday morning. He cut us a break on the price as my son is unemployed at this time due to his severe anxiety, and I think he was impressed that we hadn't applied for SSI, but it is still going to cost $1025 per court appearance. I had to pay for the first appearance yesterday. He told us that he would put a limit of $3000 in place, but hopefully everything will get resolved during the first court date. His advice was to press charges against Thomas, and send him a summons to appear in court on the date we have to go, which is March 27th. My husband, other son, son's girlfriend, and I leave tomorrow morning for Disney. I am scared to death that Thomas is going to receive the summons during the week whle we are gone and try to retaliate. My son's girlfriend will be staying here at our house with him, so he will not be alone, and we do have a large dog, but she is a big softie. I told my son to keep the doors locked at all times. Thank goodness we have very good neighbors also. I was so excited about our trip, we're celebrating son number 2's 25th birthday, but now I feel nothing but sick to my stomach.

 

[TeresaNJ]

I forgot to add that the lawyer told us to bring him five pictures of my son so he can give them to the judge, police, prosecutor, and whoever else he feels needs them.

 

[poohandwendy]

Sounds like the right way to go, pressing charges. But, I am curious...why do you need an atty to do all of that? I mean, an atty cannot press charges and wouldn't it be up to the prosecutor/judge to have him summoned to court? Why can't you do the same thing without an atty?

 

[ca859093]

I don't see how Thomas could have a fake driver's license with my son's ID as my son doesn't have a driver's license. This is why I'm so aggravated. I truly do not want to ever criticize a police officer, but I think if Thomas didn't produce ID while attempting to look for drugs, and was ticketed, then I'm angry that now my son is being put through this. If he produced a license with my son's name, then it should have been found false when the officer called it in.

I do understand how you feel about the constant criticism of police officers after risking their lives every day. I hear plenty of criticism about nurses all the time, no matter what you do, it's never enough.

Sorry if I sound like a broken record though. I'm just so very angry that we are being put through this again. Thanks all for listening.

I don't know if someone all ready posted this, but it doesn't matter if your son had or didn't have a DL. Thomas was probably able to get a fake one. I am sure with his street experience that is something easy to come by.
This is plain ol identity theft, and if you ask anyone who has been through it, they will tell you it sucks, and you will have a lot of work to do with it.
Yes it is unfair, but now you need to deal with it.
I would check with the credit bureaus to make sure they have not been affected, and with your sons health issues, I would get him with a therapist, because depending on how much damage Thomas did, you might be in this for the long haul.
Sending Good Luck your way

 

[kristen821]

I wish you the best of luck! This must be horrible. If Thomas is convicted who is resposible for the lawyer fees?