Man Sues Police for Imprisoning Him for the Wrong Crime. Twice.
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| Dwayne A. Jackson has filed suit against po-po for being falsely imprisoned twice |
In a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court, Jackson claimed the following:
Officers pulled him over on August 17, 2010, just north of Grand and Natural Bridge. When they ran his name, they found that an arrest warrant for someone named Dwayne A. Jackson on the charge of cheating the state out of unemployment benefits.
Jackson protested he'd done no such thing; moreover, while his name did match the name of the individual on the warrant, his DOB and his social security number did not.
When they took him downtown and revealed the details of the charge against him, he had an excellent defense. He couldn't have committed the crime in question because he was already locked up at the time, in the same jurisdiction.
But the police kept him in custody anyway.
Jackson is an epileptic. In his first week, he suffered two seizures before being able to get medication.
Once his public defender realized the mistake the cops had made, he got Jackson released -- 37 days after his arrest. The judge even made a note in the file, "the warrant was served to the wrong person on August 17, 2010."
Almost exactly a year later, guess what happened? Jackson was arrested again on the same charge.
This time he ended up staying for 63 days, and -- like the previous time -- had "multiple seizures."
Judge Barbara Peebles ordered a fingerprint comparison. The police said that such a comparison couldn't be done, because the prints for the real defendant were unavailable.
Jackson was finally released.
He's now suing the SLMPD for unreasonable search and seizure, violation of his due process rights, and false imprisonment. His attorney is James O. Hacking III.
Read the complaint below.
Jackson v. SLMPD
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