Elizabeth Piazza

The Daily Times

03/25/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

FARMINGTON — A Farmington woman who used her sister's identity to avoid going to jail found herself behind bars anyway because her sister also was wanted by the police.

Tashena Begay, 27, in an effort to evade arrest during a November 2010 traffic stop, provided the traffic officer with her sister's information, including her date of birth. The woman had an April 2009 active warrant out for a failure to appear in court.

But her plan backfired.

Little did Begay know that her sister, Brittany Kee, also had a warrant out for her arrest for a failure to appear.

"I was trying to avoid going to jail," Begay said in court Thursday of why she used her sister's identity.

Kee, on the night Begay was stopped by Sheriff's Deputy Jeremy Yazzie, had an active warrant because she failed to appear in court for several traffic citations.

"The joke was on you," Magistrate Judge Carla Vescovi-Dial said in court Thursday.

Yazzie arrested Begay on the warrant and also charged her with child restraints, driving on a suspended license and concealing identity. Begay initially gave the deputy the wrong social security number when she was pretending to be Kee and she had three children in the car who were not properly restrained, according to court records.

Three months later, in February, Kee was surprised when she was arrested for failing to appear in court to deal with the November citations, which were actually issued to Begay.

Kee reported the incident to deputies, who investigated the case.

Deputies contacted Begay, who told police the night she was stopped by Yazzie, she contacted her sister by phone and Kee gave her permission to use her name, according to court records.

Records from the San Juan County Adult Detention Center indicated Begay had signed Kee's name six times, according to court records.

The charges against Kee were dismissed and a new warrant was issued in Begay's name.

Begay pleaded guilty Thursday to attempted forgery and driving while on a suspended or revoked license, for which she received two years of supervised probation.