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Ricky, Robby

Heath Hamacher//June 3, 2016

Ricky, Robby

Heath Hamacher//June 3, 2016

As the father of two young boys, this Sidebar reporter understands that siblings learn from each other and, on occasion, even to look up to each other.

But Robby Lynn Hawkins of Rockwood, Tennessee, wanted to be his brother—at least while he was going through the court system.

Hawkins is clearly not his brother’s keeper, and here’s why.

According to a June 2 Department of Justice press release, the 36-year-old Hawkins was recently sentenced to 15 months in prison for perjury after purporting to be his brother, Ricky Lynn Hawkins, when he was arrested last November by Great Smoky Mountains National Park rangers.

According to authorities, Robby was pulled over in the park while driving a vehicle that had been reported stolen from Jackson City, Tennessee. He identified himself to officers as Ricky Lynn Hawkins and offered his brother’s date of birth. Robby was booked under Ricky’s information on charges of driving with a revoked license and possessing a stolen vehicle.

He was addressed by the court during subsequent hearings as “Ricky” and played right along, penning his brother’s name to official court documents. Ricky, by way of Robby, was sentenced to 15 days in prison for a “petty offense charge” of possessing the stolen vehicle.

Eventually cops figured out that the man they had in custody couldn’t be Ricky, because Ricky was already behind bars—in Indiana.

Robby was prosecuted—as Robby—by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville. He pleaded guilty in February and was sentenced to two years of court supervision in addition to his 15-month prison stint.

It’s unclear what Ricky thinks of all this, but it’s unlikely that he’s overly concerned about his younger brother ruining his good name. Lawyers Weekly doesn’t know what tomfoolery got him in deep water in the land of the Hoosier, but according to the Tennessee Department of Correction, Ricky—owner of an extensive criminal history and alleged by authorities to be a white supremacist—remains on probation after breaking a black man’s arm with a baseball bat in a 2010 attack.

Robby’s tommyrot has extended as far South, at least, as North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where he was nabbed in 2011 for operating what police called a rolling meth lab.

A short press release about Robby’s identity theft against his brother led this Sidebar reporter to do a lot of research on the kinfolk that leaves him with but one conclusion: Ricky/Robby, as I have come to warmly refer to the pair, has not been waking up in the morning and pissing excellence.

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