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By Dave Toplikar (contact) 
Monday, Sept. 26, 2011 | 10:31 a.m.
Arthur Jones was arrested July 19 and charged with four felony counts of false identity, identity theft and fraud.
Sun archives
- Arraignment reset for ‘dead’ man who was hiding in Las Vegas for decades (9-14-11)
- Why an arrest record didn’t deny identity theft suspect a work card (7-27-11)
- 'Dead' man hiding in Las Vegas for decades makes deal, lawyer says (8-23-11)
- Why an arrest record didn’t deny identity theft suspect a work card (7-27-11)
- How Arthur Jones, on the lam for 32 years, met his undoing (7-26-2011)
- Authorities arrest Chicago broker found hiding out in Las Vegas for 32 years (7-22-2011)
- Chicago man once thought dead arrested in Vegas (7-22-2011)
For a man who has been legally dead for 25 years, Arthur Jones was decidedly alive this morning in a Las Vegas courtroom.
The former Chicago broker made his plea to a Class E felony fraud charge after having been in hiding for 32 years as a casino worker in Las Vegas.
“Guilty,” Jones told Arraignment Hearing Master Melisa De La Garza when she asked him how he pleaded to a charge of seeking an application for a driver's license or identity card under a false name.
Jones, 73, who is out of custody on $20,000 bail, originally had been charged with four felony counts of false identity, identity theft and fraud.
Jones pleaded to the reduced charges under a deal he worked out with the Nevada Attorney General’s office, which found that he had an interesting story — he disappeared from his Chicago-area home in 1979 and had moved to the Las Vegas area and assumed a new identity.
“He will receive probation, as mandated by law,” Jones’ attorney, Stephen Stein told the judge at the arraignment. However, Deputy Attorney General Adam Woodrum will retains the right to argue the terms and conditions of the probation, Stein said.
Under the agreement, Jones will make restitution to the Social Security Administration, which will be determined by the court, Stein said. Stein has said Jones could end up paying between $46,000 and $75,000 for Social Security fraud.
De La Garza told Jones that under the deal, he could face a prison term of between one and six years and could be fined up to $5,000.
Although, it is a probationary offense, sentencing is strictly up to the courts and nobody can promise probation, leniency or special treatment, she told him.
When De La Garza saw Stein shaking his head “no” when she talked about the sentencing, she said “the actual sentence is always up to the court. He still has to qualify, even though this is a mandatory probation case,” De La Garza said. “He has to qualify for that. So it is always at the discretion of the court.”
After being assured that Jones had read through his guilty plea agreement and understood it, De La Garza read the charge. It said that on May 19, 2008, he used a false name on an application to obtain a drivers license at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles in Henderson.
The guilty plea said he made statements misrepresenting his name, date of birth, Social Security number and personal identification information on the application.
She ordered him to go to the court’s parole and probation department for a pre-sentence investigation report. She also ordered him to return to court at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 31 for sentencing in district court before Judge James Bixler.
Neither Jones, Stein or Woodrum would make any comments after the arraignment.
Jones was living in Las Vegas under the alias of Joseph Sandelli and is believed to have used that name since his disappearance from Highland Park, Ill., in 1979. His arrest came after a complaint regarding the fraudulent use of a Social Security number.
The reason for his disappearance was unclear but authorities in Chicago said he might have met some trouble because of gambling debts and possible organized crime affiliations. Stein said the reasons for his disappearance will be revealed later.
Jones was declared legally deceased in 1986 and his wife and children collected Social Security benefits as a result. Investigators say Jones obtained a false Illinois driver's license, birth certificate and Social Security number he claims to have purchased in 1979 for $800 in Chicago. He allegedly used the documents to get a Nevada driver's license in 1988.
"obtained a false driver's license, birth certificate and Social Security number"
We have 12 to 20 Million "others" that do that here in the U.S. all the time and they seem to have special laws protecting them.
A U.S. citizen does the same thing as an Illegal and he ends up in front of a judge.
Seems we are all not equal in the eyes of the United States laws here.
Come to the U.S. as a criminal and it is alright to use a false driver's license, birth certificate and Social Security numbers.
What is wrong with this picture?
Chunky says:
Good point Mr. VegasLee !
That's what Chunky thinks too!
+1 to all the above, an important issue in the justice system is that the law be applied fairly and even handedly and in a just manner. With millions of undocumented (or maybe better described as falsely documented) persons in the US being given a pass by successive administrations for more than thirty years, it seems uniquely and unusually cruel to prosecute a guy who was probably trying to keep from being murdered. I wouldn't give him a pass but he has apparently held down a job and never had a criminal problem before. A felony seems extreme. How does he work now? And is this prosecution a good use of tax money? I'd spend tax money on getting and preventing violent criminals and big time frauds but that's just me.
Illegals are off limits they are a source of voter fraud and exploitation they are needed to maintain our corrupt leaders while they steal from us.
"A felony seems extreme."
Gioco -- yes it does, but that's what lawmakers are doing to us now. Take the recent articles here about the law against driving with a cell phone in your ear. It's a misdemeanor, a crime one can be jailed for. It also just happens that a bunch of local judges got together and agreed to up the bail for simple misdemeanors to $1,000. As in when that law hits January 1 they've figured out how to extort a grand for a traffic ticket carrying a $50 fine.
Courts as part of our government are no longer about justice, it's now "just us" and keeping the money flowing from us to it.
"Where once the criminal law might have stood as a well-understood and indisputable statement of shared norms in American society, now there is only a bloated compendium that looks very much like the dreaded federal tax code. The end results can be downright ugly: a soccer mom thrown in jail in a small Texas town for failing to wear a seatbelt; a 12-year-old girl arrested and handcuffed for eating french fries in a Metro station in Washington, DC; and defendants serving 25-year to life sentences in California prisons for, among other things, pilfering a slice of pizza." -- "Overextending the Criminal Law" @ http://www.cato.org/pubs/policy_report/v...