Man Wants Reduced Charges for Alleged Role in Fake ID Enterprise

The UGA student who allegedly created and operated the enterprise that delivered as many as 2,000 fake ID's to underage college students wants his charges reduced from felonies to misdemeanors. 

According to a story in the Athens Banner Herald, a defense attorney for 22-year-old Tyler Andrew Ruby says that the indictment handed down against Ruby with 18 felonies was done in error. 

The newspaper story quotes Georgia law as saying that a person under the age of 21 who manufactures a fake ID “for the purpose of the identification being used to obtain entry into an age restricted establishment” or purchase consumable goods “shall, upon a first conviction thereof, be guilty of a misdemeanor ... .”

Ruby was 19 in 2011. That's when he is alleged to have manufactured and distributed the fake IDs to students at UGA and other colleges. Nineteen others are said to have been involved in the illegal business.

Attorney Ken Mauldin told the Banner Herald that he and the defense attorney, Matt Karzen, disagree on how Ruby should be charged and that the matter will be decided in court.