A case of mistaken identity?

March 3, 2009 2:58 AM

Is there a way to obtain the mugshot of a former inmate/current parolee in Franklin County (Columbus,) Ohio?

I had an amazing friendship with a classmate in high school, about ten years ago, that I've often regretted letting taper off. I'm going to be back in that city to visit an ill relative soon, and in the process of trying to track down current contact information for my long lost friend, I found that they may or may not have been convicted of a class four felony robbery. I'm shocked and confused, because this would be completely, absolutely out of character for the person I knew. None the less, this person appears to share the same name and birth date, and we /did/ grow up in an area with an usually high rate of drug use, violence, and indeed robberies (the hilltop and the bottoms, if you're familiar.) For reasons of personal safety, I am not interested in making contact if they are indeed one and the same.

posted by biggity to law & government (5 comments total)

Also, before anyone suggests that I am stalking them and/or invading their privacy, this person tried to contact me two to three years ago, but by the time the message got to me, their contact information had changed and attempts to find them /at that time/ failed.
posted by biggity at 3:09 AM on March 3

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction has an inmate search, which seems to provide mugshots.
posted by pinkbuttonanus at 4:32 AM on March 3

Thanks, pinkbuttonanus, but I'd already tried that and it yielded no useful information.
posted by biggity at 4:41 AM on March 3

I gather the smoking gun gets its celebrity mugshots etc using freedom of information act requests.

Google will probably find you a form letter to request records - something like this site.
posted by Mike1024 at 6:24 AM on March 3

I'm not sure about your specific county, but this post is on-point generally:
Are All Mugshots in the Public Domain?
posted by jacksides at 6:31 AM on March 3