ID theft victim set to be deported after being jailed (Wenatchee World Online)

ID theft victim set to be deported after being jailed

By Jaime Adame
World staff writer
Posted February 05, 2009

WATERVILLE — Right name, wrong person — with more than two weeks in jail the result for a man whose identity was stolen by his brother, authorities say.

Jose Antonio Gomez-Mota was arrested Aug. 5 last year and booked into Chelan County Regional Justice Center on a probation violation warrant issued in his name but meant for his brother, said his court-appointed attorney, Paul Cassell.

“When he told me that he was the wrong person, I simply followed up on it and determined he was right,” Cassell said.

He said he first met with Gomez-Mota on Aug. 20 at the jail after being assigned the case, and he thought Gomez-Mota was freed at an Aug. 25 hearing.

Then — after Gomez-Mota’s brother, Candelario Gomez-Mota, was charged with identity theft Oct. 2 — it apparently happened again.

Jail director Phil Stanley said Jose Gomez-Mota was arrested Oct. 10 and brought into jail from Chelan County District Court on a Douglas County warrant for failure to appear in court.

Stanley said the warrant was dismissed Oct. 14, but not before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials checked his immigration status during a routine jail sweep.

Now Jose Gomez-Mota, 25, apparently faces deportation, while his brother faces three counts of felony identity theft.

Prosecutors allege that Candelario Gomez-Mota, 23, signed his name as Jose when arrested Aug. 4, 2007.

Still using his brother’s name, he pleaded guilty in Douglas County Superior Court to possessing cocaine and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Then, prosecutors say, Candelario was arrested Nov. 1, 2007, and presented a driver’s license with his brother’s name. He later pleaded guilty to bail jumping, a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in an affidavit filed in court in October.

No one caught the alleged misrepresentation until the real Jose Antonio Gomez-Mota was arrested on a probation violation warrant — and authorities failed to catch the mistake immediately.

“My client convinced me there was mistaken identity,” Cassell said. “I went to jail to look at his booking photos for the current charge, and I went back and I looked at a booking photo for the prior felony ... and the booking photos were different.”

Cassell said he thought the jail should have studied fingerprints to catch the mistake. He showed a reporter the fingerprints of both brothers. After meeting with Jose in August, Cassell said he showed a jail staffer the two sets of fingerprints on file at the jail. The staffer agreed the prints did not match, Cassell said.

He showed the booking photos to a reporter. While the men look similar, the photos are set against a backdrop that shows their height. Candelario is about 5 foot 8 inches tall — roughly 5 inches taller than his brother.

Jail director Phil Stanley said there can be breakdowns in a fingerprint system, but results are supposed to be returned in 24 hours by the Washington State Patrol. He said he had no record of Jose Gomez-Mota being booked into jail prior to Oct. 10.

“When people look alike and look like previous booking photos ... we can be fooled for a short period of time,” he said.

Deputy Prosecutor Eric Biggar said his office relies on information provided by law enforcement officers to confirm the identity of the accused.

However, people try to fool authorities, he said.

Bigger said he was not aware of how many times someone has spent time in the local jail because of such an identity mix-up.

After authorities realized Jose Antonio Gomez-Mota wasn’t the man they were looking for in August of last year, Jose identified his brother from a photo of the man previously booked into jail in his name, according to the sheriff’s office affidavit.

Candelario Gomez-Mota was then discovered to be in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona. He is currently in Chelan County Regional Justice Center awaiting resolution of his criminal charges.

Jose Antonio Gomez-Mota is listed as a material witness in his brother’s case — and was held for weeks in Chelan County Regional Justice Center on a material witness warrant — but Biggar said his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Stanley said Jose was taken into custody Dec. 11 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.