The dangers of having the same name
A number of years ago, my sister was almost arrested by the police in Odessa, Texas. It wasn’t because of anything she had done, but because she happened to have the same name and also happened to be exactly one year older than another person who did have outstanding arrest warrants.
KXAN is reporting about a similar situation happening in Austin, Texas:
Construction lawyer Matt Ryan is claiming — rather emphatically — that he’s not the Mathew C. Ryan named in a lawsuit filed by the two Yale law students — both women — who claimed they were anonymously slurred in an online discussion board called AutoAdmit.
According to the lawsuit, the Ryan in question made sexually charged slurs about them on the Web, including a false claim that one of the women had a sexually transmitted disease. While the claims were made anonymously — and rather freely — the two women have sought to identify and find the posters, which may possibly lead to formal claims.
The Ryan in question — the real Ryan named in the lawsuit — is a University of Texas student. KXAN Austin News left phone calls and e-mail for comment from him. The Ryan who got a call from the Associated Press reporter this morning, however, is a 40-year-old partner in the downtown law firm of Allensworth and Porter, L.L.P. Ryan also an adjunct professor at the University of Texas Law School.
“My name is not spelled the same way, and the lawyer for the two women has issued a press release stating that I am not the person who is the subject of their lawsuit,” Ryan said.
Because of the confusion between the two Ryans, a tabloid Internet site went ahead and posted the elder Ryan’s resume. The postings, phone calls and emails, started pouring in. One email told Ryan, “You are so finished as an attorney it’s not even funny.”
I have to admit that I made the same mistake when I read the AP article. I guess the lesson here is to be very careful. Similarities do not really make things twins.
MickC @ August 7, 2008