Mistaken Identity

For those of you close to me, you might know I’ve been dealing with a case of mistaken identity off and on for the past two years. It all started off in 2019 when I received a warrant to my address in my first and last name from Orange County. I’m a law-abiding citizen and I hadn’t even been to OC anytime recently. It only took a quick call to the sheriff's office on the letterhead from the court to determine the warrant was for a completely different Valerie Kelly with a different middle name, date of birth, and driver’s license. The next step was to write to the court and send validation of my identity, explaining that they had the wrong person. That went fairly well and the judge issued notice to all agencies that I was not the person in the case.

Now, fast forward a year and a half later- it’s October 2020 and I received yet another warrant for this girl, which I probably should have returned to sender since it did have her full name on it, but I once again wrote to the judge, explaining the same thing as I did in 2019, that they had the wrong person and to remove my information from their file. I get a letter sent back to me, this time with my full name on it with very limited information about a court hearing to validate identity. Whoa, I’m all the way up here in Sacramento, a seven-hour drive from the court and in the middle of a pandemic. This is not happening. So I once again wrote to the court, explaining as such, but a little less nicer this time.

A few months go by and I can view very little information online other than that they have my full name listed under this girl’s aliases. So, starting in March of this year, I began receiving a plethora of mail for this girl from OC and the sheriff's department, which I once again returned to sender- all three letters. Until I receive something in my name, which ends up being a bill for this girl’s citation. I’m livid at this point that they attached my information to this bill and wrote YET ANOTHER letter to them by certified mail.

I’m so upset that I actually contacted a news station, which interviewed me earlier this week. They too were baffled that this has gone on this long. I contacted the court earlier in the week by phone and after a thirty-minute hold, I didn’t expect much, but this person was actually helpful. She was just as surprised as I am. Apparently, this case has both mine and the other girl’s driver's license information, only hers is out of state, so I don’t understand if she hasn’t updated her address or what. But the fact is they have both our information and the representative gave me an email to contact that should hopefully yield faster results, to ungroup our information.

So, it’s a waiting game, but the news media is investigating this case through the court, so we can finally put all of this to rest and remove my information once and for all because clearly they never removed my information the first time and each time this girl gets a warrant or citation, it comes to my address. She’s also six feet and I’m five three, how do you mess this up?