DENVER—Senate lawmakers shelved a proposal that would allow Colorado prosecutors to charge people with identity theft even in cases where the defendant did not know that the information they used belonged to another person.
The proposal sought to address a state Supreme Court decision last year that said a man who used a stranger’s Social Security number to get a car loan did not commit criminal impersonation. The Court said prosecutors must prove that a person knew he was using another person’s identifying information in order to be guilty of criminal impersonation.
Republican Sen. Ellen Roberts, a sponsor of House Bill 1049, asked a Senate panel to kill the proposal Wednesday. She says lawmakers could not reach an agreement on the bill’s merits.
