Oregon Public Broadcasting

A former investigator with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission faces felony identity fraud charges in Ohio.

Prosecutors allege the man assumed the name Jason Evers after stealing the identity of a 3-year-old boy murdered in Ohio in 1982. OPB's David Nogueras reports.

A U.S. magistrate had previously ruled that Jason Evers could be released to home detention while he awaited trial. That decision is now on hold with the new charges from Ohio.

Evers was arrested last month after his name popped up during a routine cross-check of passports and death certificates.

Investigators believe Evers may have assumed his new identity as early as 1996.  That year, someone claiming to be Jason Evers requested a Social Security number in Colorado and a birth certificate from Ohio.

The former liquor investigator in now in the custody of U.S. Marshalls here in Oregon. What's still unknown is the man's true identity or why he assumed a new one in the first place.

As part of the job application at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission, Evers fingerprints were sent to the FBI and were run through the Law Enforcement Data System. 

That search turned up nothing.