Ted Riley Floyd, who caused a stir throughout Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn, N.Y., and New Jersey after living for years under an assumed name, was sentenced in Wichita to a year and a day in prison for his unusual identity crime.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot handed down the sentence today and ordered Floyd to serve three years’ probation after he gets out of prison. Belot also said Floyd cannot use any name but his own, or apply to legally change his name without the permission of his probation officer.
Floyd, 28, had lived as Nathaniel James Levi in the Orthodox community of Lakewood, N.J., for years until his arrest this spring under charges that brought him to Wichita. Floyd had lived here before moving east and had applied for a U.S. passport under the name of Nathaniel Levi, a deceased military veteran. Floyd pleaded guilty in April to putting false information on a passport.
The revelation of Floyd’s true identity shocked the large Lithuanian Jewish community in Lakewood, where he lived with his wife and children, who continue to remain there. According to reports from close friends, proper Orthodox Jewish conversion rites have been performed to allow his wife and children to remain there.
2 Comments
Excessive and inappropriate punishment. A good citizen has been made a criminal by aggressive prosecution.
@LonnythePlumber ~ Identity theft is not a crime to be treated lightly. What kind of message would that send to anyone considering doing the same thing? That said, hopefully Ted Floyd will get an early parole and be able to move on from this.