CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Jamaican national who is facing deportation proceedings must first answer to charges dating back to 2003 that accuse him of lying to get a driver's license.

Paul Leith, 58, of South Euclid, was already in custody last week when he was transferred from Cleveland to Tiffin and back again -- nearly 200 miles in total -- because Cuyahoga County prosecutors asked that he answer to the 14-year-old indictment.

Leith made his first appearance Tuesday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. He pleaded not guilty to 19 total counts of tampering with evidence, forgery and unauthorized use of a computer charges.

His bond was set at $25,000 and his case was assigned to Judge Sherrie Miday's courtroom.

Leith was arrested Sept. 23 in Cleveland on suspicion of drug possession, and police officers found the active warrant from the 2003 case, prosecutors said.

Investigators learned that Leith was in the country illegally and notified the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That agency took Leith into custody and transferred him to the Seneca County Jail, where suspects in immigration proceedings are housed.

Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley's office on Thursday asked Common Pleas Administrative Judge John J. Russo to order Leith extradited back to Cleveland to answer to the 2003 charges.

Russo granted the order. The Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department traveled to Seneca County to pick up Leith, whom court records say also goes by Robert Riston, the next day.

A spokeswoman for O'Malley's office said the process was "routine."

Khalid Walls, a spokesman for ICE based in Detroit, did not respond to a request for information on Leith's immigration status.

Leith served more than two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to felonious assault charges in 1996.

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