ID thief free to continue
life under real name

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By Roxana Hegeman
Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. >> Lonnie Webster is getting his life back -- as his real self.

And Bethel College, where he excelled as a fullback on the football team under an assumed name, will not lose its athletic eligibility.

Eight years after Webster assumed the identity of James Odom, a 16-year-old Florida friend, to get a phony driver's license, enroll in Kailua High School, attend college and obtain thousands of dollars in student loan money, the scheme landed him in jail as officials tried to unravel the bizarre case spanning three states.

But after nearly two months of sitting in jail unable to raise bond money, Webster is free. State charges for identity theft, forgery and making a false writing have been dismissed. His case has been turned over to federal prosecutors. No federal charges have yet been filed.

The Harvey County attorney's office would only confirm the state charges were dismissed and would not say why. Webster's attorney, Bill Brown of Newton, declined to comment other than to confirm the case was dismissed.

Webster is believed to have been 21 when he assumed the identity of Odom. Authorities say he used that identity to attend Kailua High School for two years, where he graduated in 1996.

Although about five years older than his teammates and competitors, he joined the Kailua High football squad and helped lead them to the 1995 Oahu Interscholastic Association White Conference championship. He was then recruited to play football at Bethel College in North Newton, and is about a semester shy of graduating at the Mennonite college.

Bethel College -- where the 29-year-old Webster attended classes and played football under Odom's name -- has decided to put Webster's real name on his college transcript. That allows him to keep years of course work completed.

"You can see a fork in the road here in terms of his life and what happens to him if all of that effort disappears," Bethel College President Doug Penner said yesterday.

A phone call to Odom's stepfather -- a Pensacola, Fla., police detective who traced Webster to Bethel after learning of the scheme -- went unanswered yesterday.

Meanwhile, the college has been told by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics that it committed no infractions because of Webster's participation in its football program, Penner said.

He said if Webster wanted to enroll again, he would have to be readmitted by the college, which would then consider the facts of his case.

"We think in terms of justice, but we also try to think what in the long run will be good for individuals and society," Penner said. "The question (is) what happens to this young man as a result of his losing everything and starting all over on a downward spiral rather than being a solid citizen."