Man Arrested After Giving Fake Name to Police While Wearing Name Badge With His Real One

Markel Towner, 26, was arrested on May 21 for giving police a fake name despite wearing his real name around his neck, according to police. (Lincoln Police Department)

A man from Nebraska failed to avoid arrest despite his efforts to fake his identity to police, because he was wearing his real name around his neck on a badge, according to authorities.

Lincoln Police Department officers were looking for 26-year-old Markel Towner after responding to a domestic assault call in Lincoln shortly after 10:30 p.m. on May 21. Officers noticed a man that matched Towner’s description sitting in a parked car outside the property they were responding to, according to a police statement.

An officer approached the car and asked for his name. Towner allegedly told the officer that his name was “Deangelo Towns” but the officer noticed a lanyard around his neck that had the name “Markel Towner.”

When police told Towner that he was under arrest, the 26-year-old started to resist and yelled that he did not do anything wrong.

Police said the struggle continued for several minutes before Towner was held to the ground, according to the statement. Friends and family members of Towner began surrounding the officer in an attempt to stop the arrest, police said.

Eventually, police were able to take the 26-year-old into custody without injury and charge him with resisting arrest, obstructing a government operation, false reporting, child neglect, and third-degree domestic assault.

According to Nebraska Revised Statute 28-638 (c), a person commits a crime if he or she knowingly provides false personal identifying information or a false personal identification document to a court or a law enforcement officer.

However, in a 2015 Nebraska Supreme Court case, a man who provided police a fake name had his conviction for criminal impersonation overturned after the majority ruled providing a fake name that did not match a real person did not fall within the definition of the crime, reported Lincoln Journal Star.

Similar Case

In another case of false identity, a 34-year-old woman used a fake identity of a teenager to enroll in a high school in East Texas in 2014, according to police.

Charity Johnson was arrested after she told police officers that she was “Charite Stevens” who was born in November 1997, reported the Associated Press.

Officers said they were called to an apartment after a person who took pity on Johnson and let the 34-year-old stay with her wanted Johnson off of the property. Police discovered that she had given a false identity during the investigation.

Authorities said they did not understand Johnson’s motivation. The principal at the private high school said Johnson was an attentive student and nobody suspected her of being older. The school was also confused as to why she decided to pose as a teen.