In his attempt to get out of traffic tickets, a man from New Jersey went to the extent of posing as his fictitious twin brother.
Olawale Agoro claimed he was his blind twin brother in a bid to postpone court hearings in Rochelle Park for five tickets issued to him during a July 31 traffic stop. The 58-year-old told court officials his name was Tony, his blind brother, and the tickets were wrongfully issued to him.
Agoro may have thought he had carefully considered all the aspects of his scheme but he did not get lucky because Officer Matthew Parody, who had pulled him over and issued him the tickets was present in court at the time Agoro claimed to be somebody else. Although Agoro went all in with his trick, Parody was suspicious that Agoro was the same person that he stopped and decided to observe Agoro's movements.
Parody learned that after court Agoro was asking people in the parking lot to do him the favor of driving his vehicle. Parody witnessed somebody drive Agoro around the block but Agoro eventually took over as the driver prompting Parody to issue him with three more tickets.
Agoro was forced to admit that he was not really blind saying that did so in order to get his vehicle. Even after the incident though, Agoro continued appearing in court as Tony asking to delay court dates saying his twin brother was in Nigeria grieving the death of their father. He was eventually arrested after he missed a court date on Wednesday.
"This is just another example of the extremes people will go to escape justice," said Robert Flannelly, Rochelle Park police chief. "This guy was actually coming in on his own."
The authorities learned Agoro had no such twin brother and the person in court was no other than Agoro himself. He was identified as the real culprit after the authorities matched a birthmark under his lip on his driver's license.
A fingerprint scan also revealed the fictitious twin Tony does not exist. Agoro was not also able to produce Tony's identification.
Agoro was charged with false swearing, hindering apprehension and resisting arrest. He was sent to the Bergen County Jail on a $20,000 bail without the option to pay 10 percent of this amount for his release.
