A 72-year-old man who lived for decades under a false name in Mexico to avoid arrest, then fraudulently collected more than $130,000 in Social Security payments, was sentenced in San Diego federal court Friday to credit for time served for just over four months he has spent in jail since his arrest.
Leslie Kay Peterson, who was living in La Paz, Mexico under the name Ronald Allen Steele, fled to Mexico after receiving a first-degree robbery conviction in Washington state, prosecutors said.
Peterson was sentenced to 10 years of probation in 1977, but fled the country after he allegedly violated his probation terms the following year for failing to pay a motel bill, a criminal complaint filed in federal court states.
While abroad, he applied for a passport at a U.S. Embassy in Honduras under the name Ronald Allen Steele and in the passport application, listed his actual brother as his emergency contact, but stated in the application that his emergency contact was a friend instead, according to the complaint.
He used that passport to enter the United States on 76 separate occasions over the past 10 years, the complaint states, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection records.
Washington state withdrew its warrant for Peterson’s arrest in 2017, which a U.S. Department of State special agent wrote in the complaint may have led Peterson to apply for another passport in 2025 under his true name at the Chula Vista post office.
In addition to using a fraudulent passport, prosecutors say he applied for Retirement Insurance Benefits from the Social Security Administration under the Steele name and collected those benefits while living as a permanent resident in Mexico.
Peterson was arrested last November after trying to enter the United States. He pleaded guilty earlier this year to passport and Social Security fraud.
His attorney, Colin Rudolph, sought the ultimately imposed time served sentence, citing serious health issues and his client’s “virtually crime- free” life over the past 50 years.
“Mr. Peterson is genuinely remorseful and wishes to put this incident behind him,” the attorney wrote.
As part of his sentence, Peterson will have to pay $130,632.80 in restitution to the Social Security Administration for money he was paid since 2018.
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