Yamahile Ortiz, 18, was sentenced to probation last week after pleading guilty to charging over $1000 on a stolen credit card. And away she went.
But back she came not long afterwards, with her identical twin sister Yaricza, and an embarrassed public defender. Yamahile explained that she had not actually been at the hearing. Rather, her twin sister had stood in for her, because "I had a final today."
I remember this sort of twin-swap happening in some Disney movie, or several Disney movies, but I don’t recall it ever happening at a sentencing hearing.
Apparently, the wacky twins thought this was funny, and I base that on the judge being quoted as telling them "Do you think this is funny? I don’t know why you think it’s funny." If they did think it was funny, they found it less funny after the judge rejected the plea bargain and instead ordered Yamahile taken into custody. "[W]hen I put you on probation and expect you to be potentially rehabilitated, that certainly is not the first step toward that," he told her.
He also raised her bail to $50,000, which prompted her sister to complain, "using an obscenity," about having to help raise the bail money. Whereupon the judge raised the bail to $250,000, and ordered the state attorney general to review the case to determine whether Yaricza, who is on probation herself for another charge, had violated any state laws.
It will be so cute and funny when they try this game with the warden.