Nurse mistakenly arrested, charged as drug-dealing stripper

Akron Beacon Journal
Associated Press
10/30/05

COLUMBUS, Ohio - For three weeks, police said she was a stripper named Gia who sold marijuana and had ties to a Columbus gang.

But 31-year-old Tanya Robinson, an emergency-room nurse and mother of two, was cleared of those charges when officers realized they'd nabbed the wrong woman.

Robinson spent 30 hours in police custody, and her mug shot was included in a media montage put together that day for a news conference on gang-related arrests in Columbus.

"Not only am I being arrested falsely, it's also portrayed to my community that I'm a gang member," Robinson said she recalled thinking.

Three weeks later, Robinson and her attorney, Don Wolery, had their first meeting with Kolsky and Eckhart.

"When Tanya walked in, they both look at her and say almost simultaneously, 'It's not her,'" Wolery said.

The charges were dropped, and Robinson was allowed to return to work at Mount Carmel West Hospital, where she'd been put on unpaid leave.