PITTSBURGH (AP) - The Latest on a Pennsylvania man charged with stealing the identity of a Texas baby who died in 1972 (all times local):
2:55 p.m.
The attorney for a Pennsylvania man charged with stealing the identity of a Texas baby who died in 1972 says her client regrets the poor judgment he used.
Forty-four-year-old Jon Vincent was arrested Monday in Lansdale. Prosecutors say he stole little Nathan Laskocki’s identity so he could start a new life after escaping from a Texas halfway house in 1996.
Laskoski’s aunt discovered the ruse last year when she noticed that Ancestry.com produced records suggesting Nathan was alive. His mother asked the Social Security Administration to investigate.
Vincent’s public defender, Felicia Sarner, says that the identity theft didn’t result in any financial loss and that Vincent “has not been in trouble with the law and has lived a quiet, hard-working life” using the baby’s alias.
He’ll be arraigned May 2.
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12:20 p.m.
Federal prosecutors say Ancestry.com helped the family of a baby who died in Texas in 1972 discover that a Pennsylvania man had assumed the child’s identity.
Forty-four-year-old Jon Vincent was arrested in Lansdale, near Philadelphia, on Monday. Prosecutors say Vincent stole Nathan Laskoski’s identity after escaping from a Texas halfway house to start another life.
Prosecutors say he first obtained a Social Security card as Laskoski in 1996.
Federal prosecutors say he’s also lived in Mississippi and Tennessee under his assumed name, holding jobs, getting drivers’ licenses and even getting married and divorced.
Laskoski’s aunt was doing an Ancestry.com search late last year and found a “green” leaf on the family tree for him - meaning he was alive.
Vincent’s public defender hasn’t commented.
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This story has been corrected to show the baby’s aunt, not his mother, discovered the identity theft.
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