REGINA -- Shae'lyn Mickleborough is having an interesting week and it all started with a text from her cousin.
“It was just an exclamatory text,” Mickleborough said. “I was like ‘what’s up?’ He said ‘Are you doing Meth? You got caught with meth?’ I was like ‘No! Not at all, what do you mean?”
On Wednesday, Regina Police Service charged a woman with possession of amphetamine for the purpose of trafficking, along with three other men. The woman who was charged identified herself to police as 25-year-old Shae’lyn Danielle Mickleborough. Regina police said the woman charged with trafficking drugs was actually Sara Ann Moisiuk who police said gave officers a false name.
Mickleborough blames the incident on her wallet being stolen last year.
“I really hope that the RPS are going to do more to be more transparent about it,” Mickleborough said. “To help the public feel more safe and that they have procedures being put into place to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”
RPS sent out a media released on Wednesday about the drug trafficking charges including Mickelborough's name. Once RPS was aware of the error, it sent out a correction, properly identifying Moisiuk as the woman charged with drug trafficking. Police also charged Moisiuk with obstructing a Peace Officer for providing Mickelborough’s name.
“We are sorry that this occurred and we're going to review and we're going to take any steps we can to prevent it from happening again," Elizabeth Popowich with the Regina Police Service said.
RPS said it uses various techniques to confirm a person's identity, including finger prints which need to be sent to Ottawa.
The service said sometimes the confirmations don't come back until after the person has gone to court.
"In every one of those cases however, our records and any other records associated to it are made correct and whole," Popowich said.
RPS apologized to Mickleborough for this incident and her name has been cleared of the charges. Mickleborough said she wants her situation to be an example and lead to changes to ensure this mistake never happens again.
“I don’t want them to search me up at the border when I’m going to see my sister and hear ‘no, you can’t come in because you have meth charges.”
