Jordan Levingston wants people in the community to know he is not his identical twin, Austin Levingston.

It isn’t unusual for people to mistake Jordan for his brother, but ever since Austin Levingston was arrested last August it has been a problem. It happened again this week, after the Great Bend Tribune reported on Austin Levingston’s preliminary hearing in Barton County District Court.

Austin Levingston was bound over on three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child and two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior.

The Tribune’s report included a photo of Austin Levingston, taken when he was booked into the Barton County Jail last August. The report also noted that Austin’s bond was reduced to $100,000 at last Friday’s court appearance and he is now on house arrest.

“We’re trying to make the best of the holidays,” Jordan Levingston said. But people who see him in public mistakenly assume he is his brother.

Jordan lives and works in Great Bend, so it happens often, he said. “I don’t want to walk outside and I fear for my life.” 

Jordan Levingston wants people to know that his brother is presumed innocent until proven guilty, a fact that was also stated in a news release from the office of Barton County Amy Mellor after the preliminary hearing last week: “Although Austin Levingston faces trial on the charges, Mellor stressed that this does not amount to a finding of guilt, and Levingston is presumed to be innocent of wrongdoing at this time. Trial dates have yet to be set.”

Jordan Levingston is also concerned with the tone of some posts on social media. He hopes people will “stick to the facts.”