You have received a court summons ordering you to appear before a judge on a criminal charge. The name is correct, but it’s not you!
A Provo woman is currently dealing with that exact scenario.
Megan McGee insists she is the “Real McCoy" and not the Megan McGee named in a summons on a shoplifting charge.
And even though it appears to be a clerical error, Megan and defense attorneys say there are some things you need to know if it happens to you.
“Well, it’s kind of exciting…until it’s not.”
Megan McGee is talking about the phone call she received earlier this month.
“So I got a call from a deputy who said that we have a summons, a court summons for you and we need your email address or I need to run it up to you. I was confused because I was not aware of anything.”
It had to do with an arrest by Provo police in a shoplifting case where the suspect told them her name was Megan McGee.
Megan knew it wasn’t her but initially had no idea how to convince the cops and the courts.
“They just kept telling me; ‘Make sure you appear! In the summons, it says to go get fingerprinted and I don’t want to get fingerprinted because I don’t want to be in some criminal system.”
But Megan knew she needed to do something.
“Number one, don’t ignore it!”
That’s Defense attorney Justin Pratt and he is not involved in Megan’s case.
But he said that while mistaken identity situations like hers are rare, they can happen.
And simply ignoring a summons can only make matters worse.
“So if you don’t show up for court, the court could issue a warrant.”
Pratt says you need to be prepared to prove your ID with information and documentation, including a drivers license and possibly utility bills.
“They don’t make it so easy to get out of a criminal charge that you can just pick up the phone and call them and say; ‘hey this isn’t me!
They’re gonna make you prove it’s not you.”
Megan says she’s been doing all that.
And late Wednesday, Fox 13 News received a statement from Provo Police, which says in part;
“In checking the information provided by Ms McGee, our department discovered that a clerical error had occurred when staff entered name data into the court filing system.
Our Department has been in contact with the County Attorney’s office, and the correct data has been submitted to them.
We are awaiting confirmation of that amendment from their office.
We understand this must have been distressing for Ms McGee, and we apologize for this.”
Right now, Megan is just hoping she doesn’t have to appear in court next week, that the case will be dismissed with prejudice and expunged.
“It’s been a crazy month and I’ve lost a lot of sleep.”
