arrested on brothers warrant, spent a week in jail, HELP

[oldpumpkin]

I am in Michigan, here is what happened. my brother who was already a wanted felon for identity theft for using my name in the past, managed to get arrested in my name again, booked and printed for felony check fraud and grand larceny(months ago), then had his girl friend bail him out and they skipped town. This resulted in failure to appear warrant that i was unaware of and ended up being arrested on a traffic stop. i ended up spending a week in jail because i had no money for bail. They ended up finding out that my brother used my name,( i told them many times but they didn't believe me!), Charges were dropped against me and i was released from jail. i lost my job over this and the police didn't even apologies after they released me either.

then they recharged my brother with those crimes and added a new identity theft charge on him, and he hasn't been captured yet.

what can i do here? is there anyway i could sue the police department? i am very distraught and depressed right now and i am deeply afraid of this happending again. my name was already flagged and my brother was still able to do this to me. just pulling my hair out right now

 

[quincy]

I am in Michigan, here is what happened. my brother who was already a wanted felon for identity theft for using my name in the past, managed to get arrested in my name again, booked and printed for felony check fraud and grand larceny(months ago), then had his girl friend bail him out and they skipped town. This resulted in failure to appear warrant that i was unaware of and ended up being arrested on a traffic stop. i ended up spending a week in jail because i had no money for bail. They ended up finding out that my brother used my name,( i told them many times but they didn't believe me!), Charges were dropped against me and i was released from jail. i lost my job over this and the police didn't even apologies after they released me either.

then they recharged my brother with those crimes and added a new identity theft charge on him, and he hasn't been captured yet.

what can i do here? is there anyway i could sue the police department? i am very distraught and depressed right now and i am deeply afraid of this happending again. my name was already flagged and my brother was still able to do this to me. just pulling my hair out right now

The Michigan State Police website has published "Identity Theft Victim Action Steps" for victims to take. Here is a link:
https://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7-123-72297_41992_72431-128823--,00.html

I hope your brother is captured and jailed, so you can have some peace.

I see no legal action for you to take against the police, based on what you have said. You might want to explore with an attorney in your area possible legal actions to take against your brother, though.

 

[LdiJ]

The Michigan State Police website has published "Identity Theft Victim Action Steps" for victims to take. Here is a link:
https://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7-123-72297_41992_72431-128823--,00.html

I hope your brother is captured and jailed, so you can have some peace.

I see no legal action for you to take against the police, based on what you have said. You might want to explore with an attorney in your area possible legal actions to take against your brother, though.

He spent a week in jail and lost his job over this. I would not be quite so quick to say that he has no action to take against anyone other than his brother. He should consult with an attorney to see what actions he might take against any of the parties involved.

 

[quincy]

He spent a week in jail and lost his job over this. I would not be quite so quick to say that he has no action to take against anyone other than his brother. He should consult with an attorney to see what actions he might take against any of the parties involved.

You don't think the police can support their original arrest? oldpumpkin was arrested on a traffic stop and a warrant in his name.

oldpumpkin posted before on this identity theft. At the time, there was a failure to appear warrant issued for his brother and oldpumpkin knew where his brother was located. He wanted to know what he could do.
https://forum.freeadvice.com/threads/questions-on-a-identity-theft-warrant.651944

 

[Just Blue]

I am in Michigan, here is what happened. my brother who was already a wanted felon for identity theft for using my name in the past, managed to get arrested in my name again, booked and printed for felony check fraud and grand larceny(months ago), then had his girl friend bail him out and they skipped town. This resulted in failure to appear warrant that i was unaware of and ended up being arrested on a traffic stop. i ended up spending a week in jail because i had no money for bail. They ended up finding out that my brother used my name,( i told them many times but they didn't believe me!), Charges were dropped against me and i was released from jail. i lost my job over this and the police didn't even apologies after they released me either.

then they recharged my brother with those crimes and added a new identity theft charge on him, and he hasn't been captured yet.

what can i do here? is there anyway i could sue the police department? i am very distraught and depressed right now and i am deeply afraid of this happending again. my name was already flagged and my brother was still able to do this to me. just pulling my hair out right now

So did you tell the police/DA office that your brother was "up north" staying with your Dad as you were advised to do this past December?

https://forum.freeadvice.com/threads/questions-on-a-identity-theft-warrant.651944/#post-3605994

 

[quincy]

So did you tell the police/DA office that your brother was "up north" staying with your Dad as you were advised to do this past December?

https://forum.freeadvice.com/threads/questions-on-a-identity-theft-warrant.651944/#post-3605994

I am thinking he might have ignored that advice.

 

[Just Blue]

I am thinking he might have ignored that advice.

Sadly, he found out what happens when you ignore sensible advice.

 

[oldpumpkin]

I am thinking he might have ignored that advice.

i havent ignored the advice, i know he is staying with my dad, but i don't have my fathers address and he wont give it to me. i have told the police/DA that and gave them my fathers phone number. i was told the police cannot ping a phone location unless its a emergency situation. so unless i have an address, i wont be able to have my brother arrested, but im still trying to find out .

 

[quincy]

i havent ignored the advice, i know he is staying with my dad, but i don't have my fathers address and he wont give it to me. i have told the police/DA that and gave them my fathers phone number. i was told the police cannot ping a phone location unless its a emergency situation. so unless i have an address, i wont be able to have my brother arrested, but im still trying to find out .

The police local to your dad can't find his house? You gave the police your dad's name, right?

 

[CdwJava]

He spent a week in jail and lost his job over this. I would not be quite so quick to say that he has no action to take against anyone other than his brother. He should consult with an attorney to see what actions he might take against any of the parties involved.

An arrest warrant is an interesting thing ... it almost certainly absolves the police of wrongdoing in the arrest provided they had good identification and the warrant was in the name of the person they arrested with sufficiently identifying descriptors. It's POSSIBLE that the originally arresting agency may have fallen down on the job when they identified the brother as the OP originally, thus leading to the warrant. If the arrest/citation was made without a reasonable attempt properly identify the brother, then there might be some fault to be assigned to the original issuing agency. Maybe. But, the issue then would be what level of identification is legally reasonable in the OP's state and what steps were taken to properly identify the brother.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens. If you have a defendant who looks sufficiently like the person he or she is pretending to be, they can use their actual ID or know enough personal identifying info to be reasonably identified as their pigeon. Most of the time, the fault will like squarely upon the criminal and not the agencies involved. But, the OP is free to consult with an attorney, even if it may not result in anything actionable.

 

[westside]

OP,

When did you first contact your attorney after your arrest?

 

[not2cleverRed]

You know what?

It sounds like your brother and dad are schm****, and that's who your beef should be with, not the police.

Change your name - do you really want a name associated with your despicable Dad who favors your felon brother over you? The 2 of them clearly don't care about you, so get yourself a new identity, cut that part of the family out of your life, and have nothing to do with anyone who would have anything to do with them.

 

[Jeeplady66]

A friend of mine was in a similar situation with his twin brother. His brother was deep in addiction, wanted on several charges but would give his brothers name if questioned, resulting in my law abiding friend having several warrants out for his arrest. He finally got a secret tattoo and somehow had it noted in the police files to check for this one tattoo when dealing with his brother. Sadly, his brother has now passed away due to an overdose. Friend had to jump through hoops at a state level to get his record cleared.

 

[quincy]

A friend of mine was in a similar situation with his twin brother. His brother was deep in addiction, wanted on several charges but would give his brothers name if questioned, resulting in my law abiding friend having several warrants out for his arrest. He finally got a secret tattoo and somehow had it noted in the police files to check for this one tattoo when dealing with his brother. Sadly, his brother has now passed away due to an overdose. Friend had to jump through hoops at a state level to get his record cleared.

I don't believe twins are involved here.

 

[Jeeplady66]

I don't believe twins are involved here.

I understand OP isn't a twin, but brothers can look very much alike. My point was that perhaps OP should consider getting a secret tattoo to prevent this from happening in the future.