“It looks nothing like our transcript.”
– Carolyn Johnson, senior records specialist for the Department of Enrollment Services

The Milwaukee County district attorney deferred on March 1 the prosecution of a man charged with forging a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee student transcript.

Aldexter Hamilton, a 48-year-old male not affiliated with the university, was arrested after a UWM Department of Enrollment Services employee received a transcript verification for him on Feb. 16.

The transcript showed that Hamilton had completed 120 credits at UWM, although he actually completed only nine credits.

“It looks nothing like our transcript,” said Carolyn Johnson, senior records specialist for the department. Johnson was the one who spotted the forged transcript.

The district attorney deferred Hamilton’s prosecution to the Milwaukee County Community Conferencing restorative justice program, in which victims, offenders and community members discuss crimes and decide how offenders will make amends.

The group will evaluate a program for Hamilton that will likely include community service. If Hamilton completes the program, his case will be dismissed.

“It’s like it didn’t happen,” UWM Police Lt. Ernest Meress said.

UWM Police Sgt. Arthur Koch said the district attorney is holding the case open “because of his (Hamilton’s) record and (because) he was remorseful and cooperative.”

Johnson noted many obvious differences between a genuine UWM transcript and the one Hamilton created for himself.

“The format in which the courses were listed on the record — they were totally different,” she said. “Plus, there were indications that information was put at the top of the record that would have never been put at the top of the record, like the degree — or lack of. He put a degree at the top of his page and that’s not where the degree goes.”

Johnson added that Hamilton “made up his own little codes” for things like academic standing and classification at the end of each term. “He embellished on that a bit,” she said.

Johnson, who has been in her position for 25 years, said, “It’s very easy for me to spot a forgery.”

Forgeries are not a common occurrence, however, she said.

“This is one that I’ve seen in the last two years, three years,” said Johnson. “Here and there you get them.”

Hamilton told the UWM police that he “used poor judgment in his desire to impress his future employer.”

“He said he was sorry and he was stupid for doing what he did,” Meress said. “That will really help him get a better job now,” Meress said.

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