When a woman’s name showed up in The New Era’s Public Safety police log on Sept. 14, her mother called her in Bend to find out about it.
The woman, as it turned out, had not been in Sweet Home at the time and could not have been arrested.
Sweet Home police had actually arrested Mary Margaret Dunaway, 42, on Sept. 5 at 6:10 p.m. on charges of third-degree theft and harassment at Thriftway.
Dunaway told police her name was Martha Mathis, also known as Martha Reneé Sylvester, Sgt. George Dominy said. Those were the names that appeared in the police log in the Sept. 13 edition of The New Era.
The real Mathis called Sweet Home Police Department for more information, Dominy said, and they were able to verify that she was not the person arrested.
Dunaway is Mathis’ former sister-in-law, Dominy said. Police would eventually have found out that Dunaway had provided a false name based on her fingerprints.
Police arrested Dunaway on Sept. 24 at 4:13 p.m. on four warrants and possession of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, at 1224 Long Street.
Before transporting her to Linn County Jail, police charged her the third-degree theft and harassment from the original case then added charges of identity theft and first-degree forgery.