Case dismissed after twin with different tattoo discovered

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NEWARK - It's the type of dramatic turn that usually only happens on TV or in the movies, but this week it happened in Licking County Common Pleas Court.

A case was dismissed Monday after it was discovered the defendant's identical twin brother may have actually committed the crime.

Assistant Licking County Prosecutor Paula Sawyers said the man had been charged with aggravated possession of drugs, a fifth-degree felony, following a traffic stop in April 2015.

The driver of the vehicle, which was stopped by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, did not have any identification on him and had to be looked up with a Social Security number.

Sawyers said the trooper who conducted the stop can be heard on dash camera video asking the driver about the Social Security number and a different one provided at another traffic stop.

A small amount of methamphetamine was found during the traffic stop. No arrest was made at the time, pending testing of the substance to determine it was meth, but the man was later indicted by a grand jury, Sawyers said.

When the brother who was indicted appeared on a summons for a bond hearing, Sawyers said he never mentioned he had not been pulled over and never mentioned he had a twin brother.

"It wasn't brought up until we were prepping for trial," she said. "When you're dealing with identical twins, officers aren't going to know there's a twin involved unless they tell us."

Sawyers said when she first was told by the defense attorney, just a few weeks ago, there was a twin brother involved, she didn't believe it.

"I told him (the defense attorney) 'you've got to be able to show me something to substantiate this,'" she said. "It's not our job to charge innocent people. We want to make sure we're doing the right thing."

The defense attorney and the defendant came to the prosecutor's office on March 18 and Sawyers said the defendant's tattoo, which was on his left leg, did not match the driver of the vehicle in the stop, who had a tattoo on his right calf.

Sawyers said the prosecutor's office investigator used a law enforcement database to confirm the brothers were, in fact, identical twins.

"They have the same birth date, the pictures look the same," Sawyers said. "It's dumb luck. We would have gone forward."

The case against the indicted brother was dismissed Monday.

Sawyers said contact has not been made by the actual driver of the vehicle, the twin brother. It is not clear if charges could be filed against him at this point or if the identification issues would create problems in prosecuting the case.

In her 23 years as a prosecutor, Sawyers said this was the first time where a situation like this has arisen.

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March 29, 2016