Illegal resident charged with identity theft

March 8, 2016

Jason Auslander
JAuslander@aspentimes.com
A 36-year-old Aspen hotel housekeeper and illegal immigrant learned the dangers of purchasing someone else’s identity when she was arrested last week at a downtown hotel, according to court documents.

Marian Del Carmen Henriquez was eventually charged with felony identity theft after admitting she wasn’t the person she told her employer she was, according to the police report filed in District Court.

The incident began Thursday, when a detective with the Denver Police Department called an Aspen police detective and said he had a warrant for a housekeeper at the Limelight Hotel named Teri Romero, the report states. Detective Jeff Fain contacted the woman the next morning at the hotel before she started her shift and told her she was under arrest for domestic violence and assault.

A Spanish-speaking officer then further explained the warrant, though the woman said she hadn’t had any problems with her husband in Denver, the report states.

As the officers were taking her to jail, Henriquez admitted she wasn’t Romero but had been using her name to work at the hotel because she was not a legal resident of the U.S., according to the report. She later provided several forms of identification with her real name on them.

She also told officers she purchased the name Teri Romero from a Hispanic man three years ago for $2,500, the report states. For that price, she received a social security card and used it to get a job at the Limelight.

The Hispanic man with the last name Garcia would then contact her every year when she received her W-2 tax form and file the tax forms. When the woman received her refund, she would cash the check and give the money to the man, the report states.

However, she heard Garcia was arrested and deported nearly two years ago for selling people’s identities and she had not seen him since, according to the report. She also said her Limelight wages had begun to be garnished recently, “likely because Romero’s taxes had not been filed,” the report states.

http://www.aspentimes.com/news/21024131-113/illegal-resident-charged-with-identity-theft