Felony Friday: Mistaken Identity Claimed in CA Felony Arrest
A mother from Fresno, California has been sitting in jail for weeks and is now on the verge of being extradited to Indiana. The trouble began for Melissa Neylon when she went on a tour of the Inyo County jail for work. When she was going through security deputies arrested her for an outstanding warrant.Deputies claim that Melissa Neylon’s fingerprints were an identical match to another woman, Melissa Chapman, who was a wanted felon in Indiana for identity theft.Melissa Neylon and her husband, Shawn Neylon, dispute these claims. They believe that this is a big misunderstanding and that Mrs. Neylon is the victim of mistaken identity. She and her husband, Shawn Neylon, have been actively trying to prove her innocence before she is shipped off to Indiana.ABC 13 reports:
Public records show Chapman has been on the run since 2002. She's wanted for identity theft and gave up a baby for adoption the same year, under a stolen name. Her last known address was in Cincinnati. That year Melissa was working in San Jose, and even has timecards signed by a manager to prove it. And that baby Chapman had? Well, that would be tough for Melissa because her tubes were tied in 1999. "It feels you're climbing almost an endless mountain of trying to prove someone's innocence and just not being listened to," said Shawn Neylon.A judge will listen to their side this Friday and he'll decide whether pictures and words are worth more than a fingerprint.The Neylons say no matter what happens on Friday, they'll continue to fight. And after all is said and done, they plan on filing a lawsuit for what they say is a wrongful arrest.
Think about the irony in this case for a moment. Mrs. Neylon is sitting in jail on identity theft charges, and she claims this is the result of mistaken identity.Before hearing this story I hadn’t given much thought to the accuracy of fingerprinting. It is widely accepted that it is impossible for two people, even identical twins, to have identical finger prints. However, there are many factors that could make the fingers of two different people appear to be the same.In an article from last year in the Telegraph, Mike Silverman, who introduced the first automated fingerprint detection system to the Metropolitan Police, claims that human error, partial prints and false positives could mean that the fingerprints evidence so heavily relied upon may not always be as accurate as widely believed.Silverman told the Telegraph:
Essentially you can’t prove that no two fingerprints are the same. It’s improbable, but so is winning the lottery, and people do that every week. No two fingerprints are ever exactly alike in every detail, even two impressions recorded immediately after each other from the same finger. It requires an expert examiner to determine whether a print taken from crime scene and one taken from a subject are likely to have originated from the same finger.
There’s no way I can know if Melissa Neylon has been locked up as a case of mistaken identity or if she is a con artist whose past has caught up to her. However, it is clear that more evidence than a finger print should be necessary to pin her to a crime that occurred more than 10 years ago.Lest us forget the case of Lana Canen, who was wrongly convicted of murdering her neighbor in 2002 based on flawed fingerprint analysis.Many in society are trained not to question authority, especially decision made by law enforcement and legal experts. But stories like Mrs. Neylon’s remind us how important it is to remain skeptical and demand due process before bringing judgement.
*Felony Friday Update:
I do my best to follow-up on previously reported stories and update the outcome when possible, but with the current format of Felony Friday, there just isn't enough space to talk about current atrocities and follow-up on prior stories.This is one of the reasons why we have decided to change how we deliver your Felony Friday news each and every week. Starting in January of 2016 the Felony Friday column will be transitioning to the Felony Friday Podcast! That's right ladies and gentlemen, the Lions of Liberty Podcast has it's very first spinoff! With the edition of the Felony Friday Podcast to the lineup, the Lions of Liberty Podcast will expand to three times per week.Every Friday we will devote an entire podcast to talking about felonies. Sometimes we'll strictly discuss current felonies, and other times I'll be joined by interesting guests who have unique stories and perspectives on the criminal justice system. During the last final edition of the semi-regular Felony Report segment on the Lions of Liberty Podcast, Marc and I discussed these changes and teased the format of the Felony Friday Podcast - check it out!Download this episode (right click and save)Check out the full archive of Felony Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Check out our YouTube Channel!Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!Join our Facebook Group: The Lions of Liberty Forum
