Imagine receiving a notice saying your driver’s license is being suspended for a crime you never committed.
That’s exactly what happened to Stephanie Layton, a busy mother, church volunteer, and home school teacher from North Carolina.
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Layton was stunned when she received a letter stating her license was being suspended for a year over a speeding ticket supposedly issued in Maryland in late July. The problem? She hadn’t been in Maryland that day or any day recently.
“When I started thinking about it, I realized the only time I might have driven through Maryland was back in 2001,” Layton recalled. “I was actually helping my husband with a treasure hunt for the kids at church that day.”
When she contacted the North Carolina DMV, she discovered the ticket lacked basic details: no officer name, no exact location. Maryland’s DMV confirmed they had no record of her ever driving in the state, but the issue persisted.
“Someone at the North Carolina DMV actually told me, ‘Well, you must have done something, because somebody entered information in, even if they didn’t do it right,’” Layton said.
Determined to clear her name, Layton filed a dispute, made 97 phone calls, and even paid an attorney $1,500, without success. Finally, a friend reached out to 5 On Your Side.
“After I heard from you, it was the first time anybody actually moved on anything,” Layton said to WRAL 5 On Your Side reporter Keely Arthur. Within a week of being contacted, DMV Communications Manager Marty Homan confirmed the mistake had been corrected. “We have removed the conviction and the associated suspension from the record,” Homan wrote to Arthur in a text.
How did this mistake happen? According to the North Carolina DMV, the issue originated in Maryland during the reporting process. Traffic convictions are transmitted electronically between states. If Maryland’s system mismatches a driver record due to a mistyped license number, incorrect state code, or software error, the conviction can be sent to the wrong state.
The DMV said it continues to work within national data-sharing standards to improve error detection and streamline corrections.
“This experience has shown me that if the state isn’t willing to fix simple mistakes, that’s a problem for everybody,” Layton said.
Layton is now back on the road, but worries this could happen to another one of North Carolina’s eight million licensed drivers.