Woman wrongly convicted after childhood friend uses name during arrest in Sanford

SANFORD, Fla. — A Volusia County woman said she was wrongly convicted of several crimes because a childhood friend used her identity when she was arrested by Sanford police.

Angela Callegari turned to Eyewitness News after she felt her pleas for help to the police and the State Attorney's Office were falling on deaf ears.

The confusion started at a Target in Sanford, where the woman was arrested for petty theft. It was during that arrest that Sanford police asked who she was.

The woman gave the name of her childhood friend, Angela Callegari, instead of her real name, which is Jasmin Vazquez.

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The real Callegari only found out about the identity theft after she received a subpoena in the mail six days ago to appear in court next month.

She did some digging and found out Vazquez, a childhood friend, gave officers Callegari's name, birth date and childhood address when she was arrested.

"It completely shocked me that she would use my information like that," said Callegari.

Vazquez pleaded no contest to the charges as Callegari, but Callegari is the one who now has a record for crimes she didn't commit.

Callegari said she's worried about the impact it could have on background checks for future employment, etc.

"It's frustrating to me because I live by the law and I'm a good person and I'm really frustrated with Jasmin and Seminole County," said Callegari. "I just completely want my record clean."

As Channel 9 was interviewing Callegari Wednesday morning, the State Attorney's Office called and said it will work on resolving the issue. Callegari was also issued an apology.

"I feel a little better that people are working to figure out exactly what happened,” she said. “I keep being told that the fingerprinting process is what is confusing everybody, so somebody within the system messed up."

Vazquez pleaded no contest to a charge of providing a false identity to police, but even that record was amended to change the name to Callegari.

According to court records, Vazquez has a lengthy arrest record that goes back to 2012 in Volusia County.

The State Attorney's Office said it assigned a criminal investigator who will meet with Callegari to investigate how the situation happened, what took place and who was in court. If it turns out Vazquez did impersonate Callegari, they will correct the court record.

Cox Media Group