Quinton Graham is no angel, but he's not the ex-con the Texas Department of Public Safety makes him out to be.

And he's found out the hard way that clearing his name after a wrongful listing in the state's criminal database is nearly impossible. He's been trying since 1999.

"It changed my entire goals," Mr. Graham said.

He ticked off a list of problems his brother caused by using his identity when picked up for a traffic ticket. Mr. Graham's brother has been in and out of trouble with the law. The intertwining of their records made it hard for Mr. Graham to find a job to support his five children, pursue his hobby collecting guns and even get to know his neighbors.

But the Montague resident is hardly the only Texan to lose his identity to an offender moving through the legal system.

Since 2001, the DPS has processed 127 claims of misused identity and expunged 284 records because of misuse. And those numbers only hint at the extent of the problem; more people may not have discovered it's already happened to them.

"You may not know you're a victim," said Monique Einhorn, attorney for the Federal Trade Commission.

Not uncommonly, as in Mr. Graham's case, it's a sibling who starts the problem, because they might have a physical likeness or have access to personal data such as birthdates.

If you are a victim, you'll probably find out during a routine traffic stop or when you're rejected for a job because of a background check, said Jay Foley, co-executive director of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization based in California.

Unfortunately, Mr. Foley said, clearing a criminal record is complicated because the data are sold and resold to private companies who make the erroneous information easily accessible on the Internet. Even if the originating agency corrects the record, there's no guarantee the purchasers will.

"It's sort of like tracing a raindrop, because you have no idea where the rain is going to fall – you just know that it will," he said. "Information, once it's put into the system, bought from the system, transferred all around – there's no telling where it's going to end up."

Mr. Graham has found that correcting the bad information is an unending spiral of frustration.

"It's been a snowball hill of incompetence," he said.

The state criminal convictions database, which includes millions of records from law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and courts, also suffers from holes because of poor reporting at the local level, as documented last year by The Dallas Morning News.

DPS officials declined to comment on Mr. Graham's case, citing pending litigation – he has filed libel and defamation claims against agency officials.

Tom Kelley, spokesman for the attorney general's office, said officials expect the case to eventually be dismissed.

"We should not be in court on this matter," he said. "It is an administrative matter that the wrongfully accused allegedly needs to take care of."

Mr. Graham believes his headache began in the early 1990s, when his older brother, Jason, used the name Quinton to evade a traffic ticket.

"He figured since I was in the U.S. Marines at the time, no one would be the wiser," Mr. Graham said.

Jason had been in trouble previously, however, for taking a relative's car, Quinton Graham said, adding that his brother continued to get into scrapes the next few years for everything from evading arrest to driving with a suspended license.

Mr. Graham believes authorities confirmed Jason's true identity soon enough through fingerprints, but it was too late. Though no one has been able to tell Mr. Graham exactly how it happened, the two men's names and backgrounds became hopelessly intertwined. Jason Graham could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Graham discovered the erroneous records in 1999, when a job offer in information technology was abruptly withdrawn. The reason cited was not a bad conduct discharge from the Marines for indecent exposure that Mr. Graham had received in 1997, but a felony record for escape from custody that belonged to his brother.

Mr. Graham said he went to Fort Worth, where his brother was convicted, and obtained a clearance letter stating Quinton Graham had no offenses. He said he was told it would take several months for the correction to filter through to the state and federal systems.

The job offer was reinstated, and Mr. Graham said he thought the issue had been resolved.

But his name continued to appear in state records. And when he tried changing jobs again, he couldn't get hired, though no one gave a specific reason.

Pressed by mounting bills, he abandoned information technology and opted to work as a truck driver. But when he applied for jobs in that field, the erroneous criminal convictions resurfaced.

Mr. Graham said he's occasionally had to explain the error to others.

"My neighbors all think I'm a criminal," he said, noting that one of his daughter's friends told her he "was a bad daddy because I was a criminal."

He said he didn't know why his neighbors checked his background, "but somehow they knew."

In 2003, Mr. Graham called the DPS to declare his innocence. Officials there advised him to get fingerprinted at a local law enforcement agency and send the prints, and $15, to their offices, according to e-mails provided by Mr. Graham. He did. A few weeks later, he received a notice that he had no criminal record in Texas.

But subsequent database checks for his name again popped up a handful of convictions.

Mr. Graham, who has stacks of paperwork chronicling his odyssey through the criminal records system, said DPS officials told him they didn't have a copy of the letter indicating he had no record.

He faxed them one.

Their response, he claims, was essentially: "You're just going to have to live with this."

"They've never been cooperative," Mr. Graham said. "They're not responsive to anything."

A few months later, Mr. Graham filed his lawsuit, which accuses the agency of defamation and libel. If the case goes to trial, it will not be for months.

Bill Walsh, Mr. Graham's attorney, said his client "wants them to clear that record."

"He would like an apology," Mr. Walsh said.

Mr. Foley, of the identity theft resource center, said confusion over how to clear a record isn't uncommon. He said he's working on a couple dozen cases across the country.

"Most of these people are just guessing when they give out the advice," he said. "They don't know exactly what the process is."

DPS officials said an "identity misuse" form needs to be signed by local law enforcement, which is then filed with the state data-collection system.

"DPS cannot take it upon itself to remove something from someone's criminal history," spokeswoman Tela Mange said.

After the form is filed, the victim is assigned a "password" to give law enforcement authorities if a question arises, officials said.

But it turns out that even if Mr. Graham had received a password – he says he didn't – that only puts the information in the state's "misuse" file – it doesn't remove his name from the criminal database.

After Mr. Graham filed his lawsuit, the Texas attorney general's office informed Mr. Graham he needed to get an "expunction." How? Good question.

"The way for your client to cure the identity problem created by his brother is to file an application for expunction (there is no form that we know of, you can make up or maybe get one from a District Attorney's office in a larger city), with the local District or County Attorney who will verify the application (compare your client's fingerprints with his brothers, etc.)" assistant attorney general M. Lawrence Wells wrote Mr. Graham's attorney recently.

Mr. Graham's attorney said the problem with getting an expunction order in his case is that local jurisdictions have no record of convictions in Mr. Graham's name. So they can't expunge a record they don't have.

"There is no remedy for my client to get his identity back," Mr. Walsh said. "The ways in which the attorney general has been arguing ... will not get this done."

In earlier court filings, the attorney general's office offered another hint to Mr. Graham: apply for a new driver's license.

That would help only if his identity had been stolen for credit purposes, however, because criminal convictions are typically accessed by name searches.

Besides clearing his name, Mr. Graham would like the law changed.

"I want them to notify people before they put them in the database," he said, to afford victims of criminal identity theft a chance to set the record straight.

But experts, who sympathize with victims, say that's impractical.

"Now you're talking about slamming the brakes on the entire criminal justice system for 30, 90 days on every case," said Clay Abbott, with the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

And that could delay the entry of actual criminals into databases, allowing them to go undetected and possibly uncaught before they commit other crimes.

DPS said it notifies the FBI if an expunction is ordered. And, if a court order specifies companies that purchased the data, they are notified as well.

In addition, the agency plans to include such updated records in weekly updates to the data companies. But "there's still nothing in place to require anybody to notify of an expunction," said Angie Klein, who oversees the criminal justice database for DPS.

"I'll never be clear of it," Mr. Graham said. "Realistically, they can never clear this up. It's uncontrollable."

E-mail djennings@dallasnews.com

Some questions and answers about criminal identity theft:

What is it?
When an offender uses your name and personal information when processed through the criminal justice system. It creates an erroneous criminal record for an innocent person.

How will I know if it happens to me?
You won't, unless you check your record or are notified when stopped for a traffic violation or rejected for a job.

How do I clear my name if I'm victimized?
Call the Department of Public Safety Error Resolution Department (512-424-7256). Officials will instruct you to go to local law enforcement and have your fingerprints taken. Send that fingerprint card and $15 to the DPS, which will then send you a clearance letter. You then should go to the local jurisdiction and file a declaration of identity misuse. Law enforcement authorities will file that with the state. You will then be assigned a password to give to law enforcement authorities in case the issue arises again. To get the record deleted from the database, you must go to court to get an expunction order. Officials recommend including the name of any data company that purchased the information in the order. When DPS receives the order, the erroneous information will be deleted from the public record.