HOW A STOLEN I.D. BECAME A LICENSE FOR CRIME

Some of us believe that our good deeds will be rewarded some day, many of us assume that a police officer is our friend and nearly everyone takes a driver’s license for granted. Not Nila Marie Golden. The 22-year-old Dallas woman bailed a girlfriend out of jail one night last year and her life has since become a nightmare. Golden says the friend stole her Texas I.D. card, obtained a duplicate of her driver’s license and went on a crime spree all over Texas, Since last March, Golden has been mistakenly arrested for crimes committed by her “friend” and sent to jail twice. She’s run up more than $3,500 in bail bond, attorney and private investigator fees.

“I’m really mad that something like this could happen to me,” says Golden. “In my entire life I’ve never even received a speeding ticket. But almost overnight I became a felon. What’s bad is that this could happen to anybody. Now it scares me to death to see a cop.”

The first signs of trouble for Golden came last March, when she and her boyfriend returned from a vacation in the Bahamas. Five U.S. Customs agents arrested Golden at the Fort Lauderdale airport on a narcotics warrant issued in Dallas County. Unable to convince the federal agents that a mistake had been made, she telephoned Dallas private investigator Terri Crane for help.

Golden was then taken to the Broward County jail, where she remained for the next 30 hours as Crane and private investigator Stephen M. Hibbs attempted to clear up the mistake. In the end, the two investigators discovered that somehow Dallas County law enforcement authorities had assumed Golden’s name was an alias for the friend she had bailed out of jail, 19-year-old Robinette Sue Harris. The warrant was actually issued for Harris on charges that she delivered marijuana to a Richardson police officer. Golden was released from jail after Florida authorities were wired copies of fingerprints and photos of the two women.

Golden thought the law enforcement bungle had been corrected after the Florida incident, but her troubles continued in October, when she was stopped on a routine traffic violation by a Piano police officer. When the officer checked computer records, he discovered that two felony warrants had been issued for Golden’s arrest. One of the warrants stemmed from the use of Golden’s driver’s license to rent a spray painter that ended up in a San Antonio pawn shop. The other was a warrant for car theft in Sherman. Golden was handcuffed and taken to the Piano City Jail, where she waited 15 hours for Crane and Hibbs to again clear up the mistake.

Before the Piano arrest, Golden had assumed she had misplaced her Texas I.D. card. But Crane and Hibbs discovered that on January 26, 1984, a woman since identified as Robinette Harris presented Golden’s Texas I.D. card to a DPS clerk in Richardson and requested a duplicate Texas Driver’s License. Crane and Hibbs now believe Harris used Goiden’s driver’s license to rent the spray painter in San Antonio and used Golden’s name when she test drove a 1976 Chevy Blazer in New Braunfels, later found abandoned in Sherman.

Since Golden was arrested last October, Crane and Hibbs have traced Harris’ whereabouts to Muskegon, Michigan. According to Crane, Dallas County authorities have no plans to extradite Harris on the narcotics charge; nor do any of the other agencies involved in the investigation of the crime spree plan to bring her back to Texas to face criminal charges.

Meanwhile, Golden is still puzzled as to how Harris ever persuaded the DPS clerk to issue her a driver’s license in Golden’s name. (Golden has hazel eyes and blond hair while Harris has brown eyes and dishwater-blond hair.) Crane says that until Golden hires an attorney and takes legal action to have her record expunged, the erroneous arrests will be retained in law enforcement files.