Man says he went to jail because of an ID thief

Published 11:08 pm Monday, March 17, 2008

EVERETT — Cyle Preston insists he was not the person who was cited twice for drunken driving in 2005.

Somebody — Preston suspects an older brother — hijacked his identity to avoid legal responsibility, he said.

Preston has endured 16 days in jail and had his driver’s license suspended.

Moreover, he lost his job at an airplane parts manufacturer because he was jailed.

Even worse to Preston, those nights in jail could have been spent playing with his 10-month-old daughter.

“I lost my time with my baby,” he said. “That to me is more important than everything else.”

Judges and prosecutors are beginning to believe Preston may not be the drunken-driving suspect.

There’s evidence Preston, 25, is telling the truth that somebody else used his name, birth date and other information to twice fool police in Seattle and unincorporated Snohomish County.

Prosecutors say this form of identity theft is becoming more and more common.

Seattle prosecutors dismissed the drunken-driving charge against Preston last week. He was jailed for two weeks in King County on an outstanding warrant. He went to court there in late February to try to clear things up.

When he was released from the King County Jail, he was immediately transferred to the Snohomish County Jail, where he remained for two more days. There was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in the South Division of Snohomish County District Court.

A prosecutor recommended that he be freed at least temporarily, and a Snohomish County judge agreed.

“It’s better to work those issues out with him out of jail,” said Randy Yates, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor. “The point is if there is information that suggests somebody else committed the crime other than the one in custody, that person shouldn’t be in custody.”

Preston’s lawyer, public defender Dan Von Seggern, is pushing for dismissal of the Snohomish County case, too.

“I truly do believe he’s innocent of the charges here and in Seattle Municipal Court,” Von Seggern said.

Von Seggern would not specify what information convinced him to believe Preston. He also declined to discuss what persuaded Seattle prosecutors to drop charges there.

This sort of identity theft, what Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Halley Hupp calls “freedom identity theft,” is happening more and more frequently, he said.

Hupp, who runs a unit that specializes in identity theft cases, said he knew nothing about Preston’s case, but he has prosecuted people for identity theft who have used other people’s names to avoid traffic tickets.

“If there’s proof who did it, we have filed identity theft charges,” Hupp said.

The system is designed to deal with financial identity theft. Under today’s laws, it’s relatively easy to clean up financial difficulties caused by ID thieves.

“The system is not yet equipped to deal with freedom ID theft,” Hupp said. It’s tougher to convince authorities that they have the wrong person in jail.

When nobody showed up for Preston’s court dates on the drunken driving charges in 2005, judges in both counties issued arrest warrants. Because of that, Preston couldn’t renew his driver’s license later that year.

Preston acknowledges he is partly to blame for his problems. He found out about the outstanding warrants in 2005 when a deputy sheriff pulled him over on a traffic stop. Preston admits that he should have taken care of things then, but didn’t.

He’s older now, has a fiance and is responsible for a family. So he voluntarily showed up at court in Seattle on Feb. 26, hoping to set things straight, he said. Instead, he was put in handcuffs and jailed.

That Preston had outstanding warrants for years and never was picked up is evidence that he’s not a criminal, Von Seggern said.

“Frankly, I think Mr. Preston would still be in jail if Mr. Yates had not been willing to take a good look at this,” Von Seggern said.

It is not so unusual for something like Preston’s predicament to occur, the defense attorney said. The person who did this was not fingerprinted, photographed or booked into jail. The person had access to information about Preston. There was only a signature on the DUI citation, he said.

“This cases shows that you don’t need much identifying information to do this to somebody,” Von Seggern said, adding that it’s not unusual for someone cited for DUI to be released without being booked into the county jail.

Preston said he no longer associates with the brother he suspects of claiming his identity. He’s glad that lawyers are investigating what happened. He said he’s not bitter about being jailed, and that his strong faith helped him. He’s just glad to be out and spending time with his fiance and daughter.

“I feel disgusted, but the Bible says to forgive,” Preston said. “I can forgive, but I can’t forget.”

Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or jhaley@heraldnet.com.