An Oklahoma man has been accused of pretending to be an attorney to visit his girlfriend in jail, prosecutors said.
Aaron Oldham visited the Oklahoma County Detention Center on October 13 to get power of attorney paperwork signed for his inmate girlfriend, Christine Hillier, 41.
Prosecutors allege that Oldham presented himself at the attorney’s visitation area, and led jail staffers to believe that he was Hillier’s attorney.
But once he was inside the jail and had filled out the documentation, Oldham started ‘hugging and kissing’ Hillier in the private booth, court documents said.
Investigators quickly realized Oldham did not have any legal training or a license to practice law, and he was promptly arrested that same day in Oklahoma City for false personation.
But Oldham claims it is all a mix-up.
‘It’s a silly misunderstanding and I will never interact with that system again, hopefully, Oldham told KFOR. ‘I’m a very law-abiding person.’
While he wasn’t prepared to discuss the allegations, he told the outlet he trusted the US legal system.
Aaron Oldham was arrested after allegedly claiming he was an attorney in order to visit his locked-up girlfriend
Christine Hillier, 41, was supposedly Oldham’s client – but she was actually his significant other
He later posted on Facebook: ‘A love of a lifetime is full of silly misunderstandings.’
Oklahoma County Detention Center online records said his girlfriend was booked into the jail on October 6 at 11.38pm.
She was detained in relation to charges in Douglas County, Nevada.
On Facebook, Oldham claimed the jail had admitted that ‘it was their fault’ and they were ‘retraining the staff.’
He wrote: ‘I never said I was a lawyer, they just assumed because I am always well dressed and visited a ton.’
In a separate reply, Oldham added that ‘a heart full of love is fueled to power through all of the chaos.’
Oklahoma County Detention Center records said Hillier was booked into the jail on October 6
The Oklahoma County Detention Center said that a jail staff member had not followed ‘established verification procedures,’ paving the way for Oldham to enter the facility and visit his girlfriend.
The staff member involved in Oldham’s breach has since been ‘disciplined,’ the jail said.
Still, the event left some in Oklahoma’s legal scene disconcerted.
Criminal defense attorney Ed Blau told KFOR: ‘I’ve been to the jail a couple of hundred times in my career, and I’ve never seen a situation where somebody out of the blue showed up and pretended to either be a bonds person or an attorney.’
Jason Lowe, an Oklahoma County commissioner, called the situation ‘concerning’ and said it should never happen again.
He called for changes at the jail.
Lowe said: ‘We need more staff at the Oklahoma County Detention Center. We need more funding.’