Incline judge recalls working with Reno mystery man

Incline Justice Court Judge Jim Mancuso remembers working with a man now jailed in Reno for stealing a Seattle man's identity.

Mancuso presided over a Sparks justice court in 1994 when William Donald Walton worked there as a deputy constable posing as a man named Roy M. Vasquez.

Walton also worked in Mancuso's court here in Incline under Constable Scot Whittey, but only briefly, he said.

"Scot said he was a good worker," Mancuso said.

Mancuso said he believed Whittey hired Walton to work as a deputy constable in the justice court on more than one occasion.

"I know Scot did a background check," he added, "It was flawless. To the world he was known as Roy Vasquez."

Reno police arrested Walton last week after identifying him as the subject of a 1980 warrant issued out of Lethbridge, Alberta. Authorities believe Walton is wanted by Canadian investigators in a murder-for-hire conspiracy from 20 years ago.

Investigators are still piecing together Walton's background, who has lived in Reno since the mid 1980s using the name Roy M. Vasquez.

He was a part-time bailiff at Reno Justice Court and a security supervisor at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center.

Last week, Reno Justice of the Peace Barbara Finley raised Walton's bail to $100,000 after a preliminary hearing and bound him over to for trial on a felony charge of using another person's identity.

Washoe County Deputy District Attorney Roy Stralla said the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service also has a no-bail hold on Walton because they have not determined his citizenship.

However, the real Roy Vasquez is an accountant for the King County Sheriff's Office in Seattle.

The Associated Press reported Vasquez knew someone was using his identity when he was denied a loan because of debts on purchases he never made.

The real Vasquez also received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service earlier this year asking why he failed to report $30,000 income from his job at the Reno hospital where he never worked.

Walton was arrested May 26 and booked into the Washoe County Jail as "John Doe" while an international team of investigators attempted to discover his real name.

"It will be interesting to see how this turns out," Mancuso said.

Mancuso said he remembered Walton living in Sun Valley, but records on the alleged impostor would be hard to come by.

Deputy constables are like independent contractors and don't work directly for the county, but rather the constable who hired them.

Walton worked for Whittey while posing as Vasquez, Mancuso said. Whittey died in October after a long bout with cancer.

"Anything he did died with Mr. Whittey," Mancuso said.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.