Use of false Social Security number not impersonation, justices rule

The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that a man who used a stranger's Social Security number when he applied for an automobile loan did not commit criminal impersonation.

In a divided 4-3 decision published Monday, the court tossed out Felix Montes-Rodriguez's conviction for using the Social Security number of a woman he didn't know.

"He gave his correct address, birth date and place of employment," wrote Justice Michael Bender. "Most importantly, he gave his correct name. In the face of so much accurate identifying information, we cannot conclude that Montes-Rodriguez pretended to be another person in his loan application simply because he supplied a false Social Security number. Hence, we conclude that Montes-Rodriguez did not assume a false identity."

Bender was joined in the majority opinion by Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey and Justices Alex Martinez and Gregory Hobbs.

The court's decision was first reported by Law Week Colorado.

Justices Nathan Coats, Nancy Rice and Allison Eid dissented.

"I not only believe the majority misconstrues the criminal-impersonation statute and reaches the wrong result in this case; but by slicing, dicing, parsing, distinguishing and generally over-analyzing (over the course of some 30 paragraphs) one short and relatively self-explanatory phrase, the majority manages to exclude from the statutory proscription conduct lying at its very heart," Coats wrote for the minority.

Colorado prosecutors do not believe the Supreme Court's decision will have a far-reaching effect on punishing similar crimes.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett, whose deputies prosecuted Montes-Rodriguez in 2006, said that since then, new identity-theft laws address the crime of using and possessing Social Security numbers without authorization.

Attorney General John Suthers, whose office fought Montes-Rodriguez's appeal, said he doesn't agree with the majority's decision but also believes new legislation will punish people for using someone else's Social Security number.

"He could be charged with identity theft and wind up with a harsher punishment anyway," Suthers said.

Court records show 38-year-old Montes-Rodriguez admitted he used the Social Security number so he could work legally in this country and obtain a car loan at Hajek Chevrolet in Longmont.

The documents do not say whether he was in the country illegally, and his attorney could not be reached for comment regarding his status.

After the loan was processed, the person whose Social Security number was used found out and called police, and Montes-Rodriguez was arrested.

But the court found prosecutors failed to prove that the law requires loan applicants to have a Social Security number in order to qualify.

Hajek Chevrolet's finance director testified that the dealership requires Social Security numbers on loan applications because they use them to conduct online credit checks.

"No other evidence was presented concerning the role of the Social Security number in the loan application process," Bender wrote.