Correct suspect now held in drug trafficking case

An official with the Nevada Department of Public Safety says the right suspect is now behind bars in a methamphetamine trafficking case.

Capt. David Jones of the department's investigation division said Scott Rees, 46, was arrested Friday in Mesquite and admitted he had been using the identification of Jason Patrick, 36, an Idaho man who was jailed for several days because of the ID theft.

"It's terribly unfortunate, the sequence of events, the way they turned out," Jones said Wednesday. "Mr. Patrick was arrested, and he should not have been. We all know that now."

Patrick said he spent more than two days in a Utah jail after his name and picture were posted on the department's website as part of its "10 Most Wanted" list.

Tess Driver, assistant to Clark County District Attorney David Roger, said the Department of Public Safety's investigation division submitted the case for prosecution and obtained an arrest warrant for Patrick in June.

Patrick was arrested March 30 after he returned to Logan, Utah, where he once worked as a newspaper reporter, to pay a neglected fine for fishing without a license.

He was released April 1 after Las Vegas attorney Martin Hart provided the district attorney's office with time sheets showing that Patrick was working for The Herald Journal in Logan when the crimes occurred in August 2009 in Mesquite.

Hart said he picked up about 30 pages last week from the Clark County district attorney's office. Included were officer's reports from the drug investigation. The lawyer said one of the reports refers to the suspect as "Scott, later positively identified as Jason William Patrick."

Patrick was charged with trafficking in methamphetamine and conspiracy to violate the Uniform Controlled Substances Act. Now Rees, who is being held at the Clark County Detention Center, faces those charges instead.