Spin and statistics in massive (2+1)-dimensional QED

We reexamine the questions of spin and statistics of nonrelativiic charged particles coupled to a topologically massive abelian gauge field. We show that these particles obey fractional statistics and carry an extra (gauge invariant) spin so that the generalized spin statistics relation is fulfilled. In particular, if the topological mass is obtained from integrating out heavy fermion fields, two flavors of fermions are needed to turn bosons into fermions. We also show, by explicitly considering the Dirac vacuum in the presence of a heavy point particle, that screening charge is exponentially localized and that the fermions do not contribute to the (gauge invariant) spin of the particle.