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Jose Ayala of Springfield was falsely identified as a suspect in a larceny and breaking-and-entering after his brother impersonated him to police.

(Submitted photo)

Jose Ayala may be the most frequently framed man in Springfield.

He has lived in fear of officers showing up at his door with warrants and handcuffs, because, he says, of his brother Eduardo - a heroin addict who has made a habit of falsely identifying himself as his brother to authorities.

Until this weekend the consequences had been private. He had been falsely identified by his brother about seven times in the last four years, he said, and at one point had to submit fingerprints and a photograph to the Springfield Police Department to prove he was not his brother.

But on Saturday, for nearly eight hours, he was publicly named as a thief and house breaker by the Springfield Police Department and media organizations.

"My cousin called me and said 'have you seen the news?' I said no, she said you should look. Your name is plastered all over," Ayala said in an interview. "It was really embarrassing for me to walk out of my house on Saturday. Neighbors looking at me."

Ayala's moment of notoriety was due to his brother, who memorized his address and social security number and gave those details to police when he was arrested for stealing two electric guitars from Falcetti Music in Springfield.

But it is also a story of how misinformation can spread in a media environment measured in minutes and dependent on the reliability of police reports posted on social media.

Eduardo Ayala allegedly stole two guitars from Falcetti Music around 8:45 p.m. on Friday, before fleeing and breaking into a house on Waterford Circle. There, he was arrested by police and gave his brother's identification, according to both Springfield Police and Jose Ayala.

The next day, at 11:53 a.m., Springfield police posted Eduardo's photo and a narrative of his alleged crimes on its Facebook page - with Jose named as the thief and his address posted publicly.

Within an hour, Western Mass News had picked up the story, identifying Jose Ayala as the suspect. MassLive and 22 News followed suit.

Ayala, an enrollment specialist at Behavioral Health Network, had dealt with his brother's false identifications before, but never so publicly. He was embarrassed and worried about his employer's reaction.

Ayala went to Springfield Police Headquarters, where he was told to contact Sgt. John Delaney, who runs the department's Facebook page.

"Please be advised that the young man caught stealing is Eduardo Ayala 6/17/1976. I'm Jose Ayala and this is not the first or the 10th he used my address," Ayala wrote to Delaney, according to an email Ayala provided to MassLive. "Please correct your page to reflect him this could cause (sic) me my Job!"

Delaney promised to notify investigators, and almost seven hours later the police Facebook post was corrected after the department's records division proved that Eduardo had lied about his identity. Corrections by media organizations followed over the course of the weekend.

But the structures of the internet can mean that errors persist even after articles are corrected. As of Monday morning a Google search for "Jose Ayala Springfield" still produced results linking Jose to the theft, because the updated news stories had not yet been indexed by Google's search engine.

Springfield Police arrest man suspected of robbing music store, breaking into home 2 Gallery: Springfield Police arrest man suspected of robbing music store, breaking into home

In an interview, Delaney said that Eduardo Ayala had no physical identification when he was arrested. In those cases, officers take down social security numbers and dates of birth at the scene. Finger printing is done back at the station and the department's records division verifies the identity, but often not until an initial police report has been filed.

"It takes a few hours depending on how busy they are," Delaney said. "When the officers do the report, they probably won't know until later in the shift that the real identity was known. The report is already in the system."

In Ayala's case, the arresting officer forwarded the report to Delaney as a good arrest deserving of publicity. Delaney posted his narrative on Facebook on Saturday, and later in the afternoon was notified that the ID was false.

Eduardo has a long criminal history, a number of aliases and has used his brother's name on multiple occasions, Delaney said. There is now a note on his file to prevent future mixups.

"We have flagged the file," Delaney said.

The risk of media organizations publishing inaccuracies included in police reports is not new, said Dan Kennedy, an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University. Reporters have a long tradition of relying on police departments as the sole source of information on crimes, both due to deadlines and the difficulty of contacting suspects who have just been arrested and may not have legal representation.

"This has been standard practice as long as I've been in the business," Kennedy said. "You just go to the police department, take notes on the log and write it up."

Social media has not changed that, Kennedy said. But information now moves much faster and does not have to go through media organizations to reach the public.

"If this mistake were making a mistake on the police log, it wouldn't go out until we reported it," Kennedy said. "Now people are following their Facebook pages. You're amplifying the error, but the police are the first to report it."

For Jose Ayala, who says he has no criminal record, the is incident part of a years-long pattern that has left him in a state of nervous vigilance each time he sees blue and red flashing in his rear view mirror.

"There's no help out there for people like me," Ayala said. "I don't know if the cops are going to show up at my house and arrest me for something Eduardo did. I'm living in fear all the time."

The false identifications began in 2011, when officers knocked on the door of the hotel where Jose was staying in West Springfield. It was 4 a.m., and they had a warrant for his arrest, Ayala said.

"I was wondering why, I knew I didn't do anything," he said.

Jose's brother Eduardo had impersonated him to the police - a lie that became a pattern, and for which Eduardo has expressed no remorse, Ayala said.

Jose got pulled over and summoned to court, where he learned his brother had missed a court date. He received notices of tickets handed out to his brother. He was called to give his fingerprints to the Springfield Police Department, and learned that his identity was compromised.

"When I got there, Eduardo's fingerprints were in my file, as well as his picture," Jose Ayala said.

Ayala said he shreds his unused IDs, but that Eduardo has memorized his license number and address.

"It just kept happening and happening," Ayala said.

But before this weekend, the false identifications had been a private inconvenience, not a public humiliation.

"This has been the biggest right now when I'm all over the news," Ayala said.

Eduardo Ayala has been charged with initially chargrd with larceny over $250 and breaking and entering. After his deception was uncovered, police added a new charge - giving a false name.