Imagine someone using your identity and you spend a night in jail and have to sue to get subsequent damages paid for.
Now imagine the offender is one of your family members.
Jeff Wilson from Akron said he's been putting up with his brother posing as him for more than 10 years.
Wilson is fed up with the arrest system and he wants changes. "I'm sick and I'm so tired of fighting,” he said. "I will stand up. I will continue to fight because if it's happening to me, it's happening to other people."
Wilson took numerous court documents and sued his brother Paul Wilson in Ohio and on the 'Judge Mathis Show' recently. "I ended up winning that lawsuit, came back, and I'm pretty much thinking everything is settled. It was done with."
We uncovered another case: on Nov. 1 last year, Paul Wilson used Jeff's name again when Paul was arrested for shoplifting. Jeff had to get a warrant that was in his name changed to his brother’s name.
Springfield Township Police told us while identity falsification is not very common, it’s not uncommon either. It happens and family members have been known to do it.
We combed through Summit County court records and found numerous charges against Paul Wilson including a 2006 felony conviction for identity fraud where Jeff was the victim.
"He went to the doctor using my name and changed the amount of the prescription, changed it to another amount and used my name and I ended up going to jail for that," Jeff Wilson said. He had to spend a night in jail and then fought to clear his name.
We tracked down several past addresses for Paul Wilson. One doesn't exist. At another, the landlord said Paul Wilson wasn't paying and just left.
"I'm done renting to friends because he was a friend of mine,” said Greg Bolyard, who owns the home. “I've known him since he was a kid."
Jeff Wilson is stepping forward again, trying to get help about his brother. We contacted Akron Police and the Summit County Prosecutor's Office. Jeff has contacted various agencies, too.
"Whoever I talk to when I go down there, they're always saying it shouldn't have happened,” he said. “Of course, it shouldn't have happened. It should have never started in the first place.”
Jeff Wilson wants holes in the system fixed so ID theft is caught well ahead of time. "There should be no way that somebody should be able to use somebody's...just walks through and pretends to be somebody else."
One problem police have is with field arrests on misdemeanors where they don't haul people into the station. There are no fingerprint scanners in the cars to verify what a criminal is saying about his ID.
