Published Friday, August 10, 2001 in the Miami Herald

12-year ruse ends as man's impersonator arrested

BY LESLEY CLARK lclark@herald.com

In the past 12 years, Clay Monroe Henderson has bought and sold homes, opened bank accounts, secured credit cards, married two women -- and had his share of scrapes with the law in Florida.

Trouble is, the real Clay Monroe Henderson lives 3,000 miles away in California. And as his impersonator in Florida accumulated a raft of debt and a host of criminal charges, the real Henderson felt the sting: His credit in shambles, Henderson even spent a week in a California jail on a warrant from Florida issued on the man who stole his identity.

On Wednesday, the tables were turned and police carted the fraudulent Clay Monroe Henderson -- actually Douglas R. Staas -- off to jail. He was released Thursday after posting a $1,000 bond. Charged with 16 felonies related to identity theft, Staas, 42, faces 80 years in prison if convicted.

Even members of a new statewide task force created to crack down on identity theft, one of the fastest-growing crimes in the United States, are agape at Staas' caper.

"These guys generally steal an identity to get the credit cards, max them out and go," said Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Joe Lowman. "He really just wanted to maintain the identity of Clay Henderson."

HIDING FROM LAW

Authorities suspect Staas wanted to live as Henderson to escape bad-check charges he accrued in New Jersey's Camden and Atlantic counties. The sheriff's office in Camden said the bad-check warrant, issued in 1983, is still active.

"It appears he did it to hide from New Jersey," said Lt. Joseph Paez of the Hernando County Sheriff's Office, which cracked the case after a call from the real Henderson.

To pose as Henderson, Staas somehow obtained Henderson's driver's license. Though the faux Henderson hasn't told authorities how he did it, the real Clay Henderson told them he lost his wallet and driver's license while vacationing in Daytona Beach in 1987. Paez said Henderson, 39, told detectives he drove to Florida from Texas with Staas, but doesn't know if Staas took his wallet or if it was lost.

For some time, Staas was apparently able to keep Henderson in the dark because he paid the bills on the credit cards he obtained with Henderson's identity.

Staas' payments, however, were frequently late and they began to damage Henderson's credit rating.

The real Henderson then found himself at odds with corporate America. An apartment complex rejected his lease application and credit card companies turned him down. When Staas defaulted on loans, civil judgments were levied against Henderson.

Staas couldn't seem to stay out of trouble and he began to create a criminal record for Henderson. His charges in Florida include fraud and passing worthless checks.

Because of the criminal history and poor credit rating, the real Henderson, employed by a company that does computer work at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, was given only limited security clearance at the base, dooming any hope for promotion.

Then the bottom fell out. In the mid-1990s, Henderson was arrested and tossed in a California jail on a worthless-check charge issued by authorities in Seminole County, Fla.

He spent a week in jail, released only after he provided a copy of his fingerprints to Florida officials. He left jail determined to clear his name.

CREDIT CLUE

Identity-theft victims are urged to monitor their credit reports for unusual activity. Searching his own credit reports, Henderson found an unfamiliar credit card billed to an unfamiliar address: Weeki Wachee in Central Florida's Hernando County.

On May 19, he called the Hernando County Sheriff's Office and was put in touch with Detective Curt Turney, who, as luck would have it, had earlier investigated an unfounded charge against the fake Henderson.

"When he got the case from Clay Henderson in California, it appeared to him that the Clay Henderson he had dealt with in Spring Hill was someone else," Paez said of the detective. Turney talked with other deputies who had responded a year earlier to a disturbance at the phony Henderson's home, where they talked with a woman with the last name of Staas. She told them she was Henderson's sister.

Turney did a computer search and found a Douglas Staas wanted on charges in Camden County, N.J. A comparison of fingerprints on file for Staas in New Jersey matched the Florida Henderson's fingerprints.

"We got the photos and it was the same individual," Paez said. "It was some fortuitous circumstances that he ended up with a detective who had previously dealt with [the fake] Henderson and some good detective work." The work is just beginning for the real Henderson, said Rick Morera, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent and identity-theft task force member.

"He's got 12 years' worth of false information to undo," Morera said of Henderson, who declined to discuss the ordeal. "It's a long road ahead to get that corrected."

Herald researcher Tina Cummings and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001