Fake ID in Nebraska: Penalties, Defenses, and Record Clearing

Getting caught with a fake ID in Nebraska is most often charged as identity fraud under Nebraska Revised Statute 28-640, a Class I misdemeanor on a first offense that carries up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.¹ A second conviction becomes a Class IV felony with up to two years in prison. If the ID was used to buy alcohol, get a job, or obtain money or goods, additional charges can be filed in the same case.

The Charges You Can Face

Nebraska has three statutes that commonly come into play. Which ones apply depends on what you did with the ID.

Identity fraud (Section 28-640). This is the main statute. You commit identity fraud if you create, counterfeit, alter, or mutilate a personal identification document with intent to deceive, or if you knowingly possess, use, sell, or furnish such a document for a deceptive purpose.¹ The definition of “personal identification document” is broad: driver’s licenses, state IDs, birth certificates, employment IDs, Social Security cards, and passports all qualify, as does any document altered to look like it was issued to someone else.

Criminal impersonation (Section 28-638). This statute applies when someone assumes a false identity to gain money, credit, goods, or services, or provides false identification to a court, law enforcement officer, or employer.² Prosecutors can charge this instead of, or alongside, identity fraud.

Liquor code violations (Section 53-180.01). If you are under 21 and use a fake ID to try to buy alcohol, this statute adds a separate offense specifically for misrepresenting your age.³

Penalties for a First and Second Offense

A first identity fraud conviction is a Class I misdemeanor: up to one year in jail, a fine up to $1,000, or both.⁴ There is no mandatory minimum. Courts can impose probation, community service, or a fine on its own, and first-time offenders with no other criminal history often avoid jail entirely.

A second or subsequent conviction is a Class IV felony. That carries up to two years in prison plus twelve months of post-release supervision, a fine up to $10,000, or both.⁵ The court can also order restitution to anyone harmed financially by the fraud. The jump from misdemeanor to felony is what catches most people off guard. A college student who pays a fine after a first citation and then gets caught again is no longer looking at another slap on the wrist.

If prosecutors charge criminal impersonation because the ID was used to actually get something of value, penalties scale with the amount involved:

Under $500 or no value gained: Class II misdemeanor, up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. A third conviction becomes a Class IV felony.
$500 to $1,499: Class I misdemeanor. A second becomes a Class IV felony.
$1,500 to $4,999: Class IV felony. A second becomes a Class III felony.
$5,000 or more: Class III felony, up to four years in prison plus two years of post-release supervision and a $25,000 fine.

Two situations have their own tracks regardless of dollar value. Handing a fake ID to a court or a law enforcement officer is a Class IV felony on the first offense. Giving a fake ID to an employer to get a job is a Class II misdemeanor on the first offense.²

Extra Charges When Alcohol Is Involved

The bar or liquor store scenario is where charges most often stack. A 20-year-old who hands a fake driver’s license to a bartender can be charged with identity fraud under 28-640 and misrepresentation of age under 53-180.01 in the same case. These are additional charges, not substitutes.

Penalties for the liquor code violation depend on age. A person 19 or 20 years old who violates the minor possession or consumption laws faces a Class III misdemeanor, up to three months in jail and a $500 fine.⁶ Younger offenders fall under a separate provision. When prosecutors stack an identity fraud charge on top of a liquor code violation, the combined exposure grows quickly, especially if the fake ID is a high-quality forgery rather than an obviously altered card.

Making or Selling Fake IDs

Creating fake IDs for others carries the same Class I misdemeanor classification under 28-640 as possessing one, but prosecutors and judges typically treat manufacturing more harshly at sentencing because of the potential to enable widespread fraud.

Nebraska’s liquor code adds a separate charge aimed directly at this conduct. Anyone who knowingly creates or alters identification documents for sale or delivery to someone under 21, where the purpose is to enable alcohol purchases, commits a Class I misdemeanor. This applies whether or not the manufacturer is a minor themselves.⁶ Someone running an operation out of a dorm can face charges under both statutes, and each sale can be charged as a separate transaction.

Consequences That Outlast the Sentence

The fine and the jail exposure are only the front end. A fake ID conviction creates a criminal record that reaches into places most 19-year-olds are not thinking about.

Schools often have conduct codes that treat criminal convictions as disciplinary matters, which can mean academic probation, suspension, or loss of scholarships. Graduate and professional school applications regularly ask about criminal history, and a fraud-related conviction is exactly the kind of entry admissions committees flag.

Employers run background checks, and a conviction involving dishonesty is particularly damaging in financial services. FINRA requires registered representatives to disclose any felony conviction and any misdemeanor involving fraud, false statements, forgery, or counterfeiting on Form U4. Identity fraud falls squarely inside those categories.

Travel programs care too. The TSA lists identity fraud as an interim disqualifying offense for TSA PreCheck and Global Entry. Applicants convicted or who pleaded guilty within seven years of applying, or released from incarceration within five years, will be denied enrollment.⁷ For anyone who needs or may need a federal security clearance, identity fraud raises the kind of judgment-and-reliability questions adjudicators are specifically told to consider.

Defenses That Can Apply

A charge is not a conviction, and several defenses come up regularly in these cases.

Intent is the most common target. Both 28-640 and 28-638 require the prosecution to prove you intended to deceive. Possession of a novelty card, a theatrical prop, or a document you did not know was fraudulent can defeat the charge when there is no evidence you actually tried to use it. This works best when you were stopped before any transaction took place.

Mistaken identity matters in manufacturing and distribution cases. If you are accused of making or selling fake IDs, the state has to tie you to the actual creation or sale. Absence of forensic evidence linking you to the equipment or the finished documents, alibi evidence, or proof that others had access to the materials can all undercut the case.

Procedural defenses arise when officers cut corners. An unlawful search of a wallet, bag, or dorm room, or questioning in custody without Miranda warnings, can lead to suppression of the ID itself or of statements you made about it. Without that evidence, the case often falls apart.

Clearing the Record Later

Nebraska does not offer traditional expungement, but you can petition the sentencing court to set aside a conviction under Section 29-2264. When granted, the set-aside nullifies the conviction and removes civil disabilities tied to it.⁸

Eligibility depends on your sentence. If you were sentenced to probation, a fine only, or community service, you can petition once you have completed every condition, including paying the fine in full. For other sentences up to one year of imprisonment, you can petition after completing the sentence, provided you have no pending criminal charges anywhere and at least two years have passed since any prior set-aside petition was denied.

The court weighs your behavior since sentencing and the likelihood you will stay out of further trouble. For a first-time fake ID offense with a clean record afterward, the odds of a set-aside are reasonable. One caveat built into the statute itself: the court is directed to tell you to consult an attorney about how a set-aside interacts with your right to possess firearms under state or federal law, so the picture there is not simple.

1
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Revised Statutes 28-640 – Identity Fraud; Penalty; Restitution
2
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 28-638 – Criminal Impersonation
3
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 53-180.01 – Minor; Obtain Alcoholic Liquor by Misrepresentation
4
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 28-106 – Misdemeanors; Classification of Penalties
5
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 28-105 – Felonies; Classification of Penalties
6
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 53-180.05 – Minors and Incompetents; Violations; Penalties
7
Transportation Security Administration. Disqualifying Offenses and Other Factors
8
Nebraska Legislature. Nebraska Code 29-2264 – Conviction May Be Set Aside; Conditions