My Stolen Identity, and a Congressional Appeal

So, this happened:

I haven't mentioned it before but since late 2007 my younger brother Eric has with complete disregard been stealing my identity.  The worst part is not even what he did but when he did it - mere months after our youngest brother died, and even worse, he stole much more from our own mother, mere months after her son died.  Unfortunately, you can't choose your family.  Not surprisingly, there's something of an estranged relationship and I haven't spoken to him since 2008.  It'll be going on five years soon.

I have enough to write about the last four (almost five) years to write a book.  I'm only half joking.  Maybe one day when I have the time, and more importantly the courage to divuldge that much of my personal life.  Another reason to wait, unfotunately, is that my stomach tells me the last chapters of this story haven't been written yet.

While writing letters this morning to clean-up some of this most recent mess I was going through some files saved on my computer to pull supporting documentation - it's been incalculably helpful to keep everything and keep it organized - and I came across a letter I wrote to Congress dated December 28, 2009.  I think I sent a copy to both senators and my congressman.  At the time I was living in Atlanta, a broke graduate student unable to travel home, while fraud was taking place in Connecticut, New York, and even Nevada.  When I went to the police, most didn't know what to do with me.  It was a mix of advice of go to my home jurisdiction or go to where the fraud took place, always someplace else.  The old system of working through local police who are tied to their respective jurisdictions is clearly unsuitable for rectifying identity theft.  It's one thing if someone passes a bad check in your name two towns over, I was dealing with incidents two time zones over.  To their credit most police officers with two brain cells recognize this, and it's not their fault as their hands are tied by the existing rules.

Basically, the story behind this particular letter is that my brother obtained a duplicate copy of my driver's license which he was using for other fraud.  At some point, I believe he was pulled over for speeding and gave the trooper my copy instead of his own when asked.  Moreover, he didn't pay the fine, which resulted in my license being suspended.  Of course, that couldn't be solved over the phone.  I had to wait until I got home for winter holidays to go to court in New York, where the incident took place.  After waiting months I came to plead my case, a jerk prosecutor (maybe on a bit of a power trip) dismissively said he would see me in trial, without even hearing my story.  I should say here that there was an ending as "happy" as could be hoped for - I was sent back home in March for a job interview and, returning to court, had a much nicer, sympathetic prosecutor hear my story who instantly dropped all charges on my demonstrating evidence that a duplicate license copy was seized by police.  But, three months earlier, the whole thing was a headache given the distances, giving my frustrations and anxiety over my suspended license, the injustice of it all and my feelings of helplessness in the bureaucracy.  So when I could do nothing else, I could still write a letter.  I wrote to my representatives to appeal for...something, something else.  There had to be a better way.  Segments of my letter follow below (and I see now I did not edit it as well as I could have, but at that point, it was primarily about venting, more for me than for them...):

The Honorable ______
(Room #) (Name) Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510

December 28, 2009 

....

My very-similar-looking brother, Eric – who has been incarcerated since August on various fraud and larceny charges – obtained a duplicate copy of my driver’s license which he used to impersonate me in various bank fraud schemes.  To my knowledge I have cleared my name with the exception of one issue: in late 2008 Eric was pulled over for speeding in New York State and gave the trooper my license instead of his own.  He never paid the fine and I was only alerted to the infraction on my license when I received a letter from the DMV earlier this fall informing me my license is being suspended.  The situation is a nightmare for me.  Despite local police contacting the Port Chester (NY) court, the prosecutor insists that the case go to trial where it was essentially phrased that I needed to prove my own innocence.  I am very anxious because I am a financially-limited graduate student and the cost of returning to the area for the trial exceeds the cost of the infraction.

My local police, as I have mentioned, have intervened on my behalf to no avail.  One obstacle they have offered to the charges not being immediately dropped is that the infraction took place out-of-state.  This should not be hindering an innocent citizen’s clearance of charges; it is an embarrassment that an artificial boundary is impeding justice.  Given the intra-jurisdictional nature of the problem, I would think that the Federal Government could facilitate the resolution of such situations.  I am imploring you to propose or support legislation that would provide identity theft victims in cross-state cases a federal resource in which they could turn to for assistance.  Victims would be indebted to you and such legislation for relieving some anxiety associated with an unfortunate experience.  Thank you for time, and humbly I appreciate your support.

Needless to say, no bill has yet named in my honor.  Of the three congressmen I wrote I only got one response, which did little more than to reference an enclosed brochure on identity theft and advise me to check my records with the three credit bureaus.  So in regard to my concerns, the same as no response.