It’s kind of an odd story. A victim of identity theft is arrested and kept overnight in jail because the person who stole her identity … stole her identity:
A suburban Portland, Ore., resident learned she had been a victim of identity theft in 2008. That’s when an officer from the Clackamas County sheriff’s office stopped by Kimberly Fossen’s home to let her know that a woman arrested in Las Vegas had a Florida driver’s license in Fossen’s name.
But in late 2009, sheriff’s officers came to her home again. This time it was to arrest her on a New York warrant charging her with theft. Knowing that her identity had been stolen, Fossen asked the officers to run her fingerprints to confirm that she was not the woman they sought, the Oregonian reports. Instead, they took her to the county lockup, where she spent the night before being publicly arraigned the next day, shackled and wearing jail garb.
Fossen, who is a decade older than the actual suspect and has noticeably different facial features, was released a few hours after her arraignment. However, “you really have to experience it to know how it feels,” she told a state court jury hearing the false imprisonment civil suit she brought against the county over her arrest. In a 10-2 verdict, they awarded her $105,000.
Here’s the full story, from the ABA Journal: Identity-theft victim wins $105K jury award for night spent in lockup and arraignment in jail garb.