Colorado High Court Rules Use of False Social Security Number Not Criminal Impersonation

Published December 23, 2015

The top court in Colorado ruled this week that a man who used a stolen Social Security number to apply for a car loan did not commit criminal impersonation

The state Supreme Court threw out Felix Montes-Rodriguez's 2006 conviction in a 4-3 decision published Monday. Montes-Rodriguez used his own address, birth date and place of employment to apply for a loan, but used a woman's Social Security number that he had been using for work. His immigration status isn't known.

A majority of justices ruled that with so much identifying information on his application, he didn't assume a false identity.

But the other justices said the majority botched the call.

"I not only believe the majority misconstrues the criminal-impersonation statue and reaches the wrong result in this case; but by slicing, dicing, parsing, distinguishing and generally over-analyzing (over the course of some 30 paragraphs) one short and relatively self-explanatory phrase, the majority manages to exclude from the statutory proscription conduct lying at its very heart," Justice Nathan Coats wrote for the minority, according the Denver Post.

Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, who was among the majority in the decision, is retiring at the end of next month after facing an uphill battle to keep her job in a election next week. Justice Alex Martinez, who also ruled in favor of Montes-Rodriguez, faces a vote on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say the decision has little impact because new laws have stiffened penalties for unauthorized uses of Social Security numbers.

"He could be charged with identity theft and wind up with a harsher punishment anyway," Attorney General John Suthers, whose office fought Montes-Rodriguez's appeal, told the newspaper.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/colorado-high-court-rules-use-of-false-social-security-number-not-criminal-impersonation