Officer, you've got the wrong person (CNN)

[heli]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/15/colorado.mistaken.identity.arrest/

Officer, you've got the wrong person
By Stephanie Chen, CNN
February 15, 2010

(CNN) -- Three police cars pulled into Christina FourHorn's front yard one afternoon just before she was supposed to pick up her daughter at school. The officers had a warrant for her arrest. "What do you mean robbery?" FourHorn remembers asking the officers. Her only brushes with the law had been a few speeding tickets. She was locked up in a Colorado jail. They took her clothes and other belongings and handed her an oversize black-and-white striped uniform. She protested for five days, telling jailers the arrest was a mistake. Finally, her husband borrowed enough money to bail her out. "They wouldn't tell me the details," she said.

Later, it became clear that FourHorn was right, that Denver police had arrested the wrong woman. Police were searching for Christin Fourhorn, who lived in Oklahoma. Their names were similar, and Christina FourHorn, a mother with no criminal record living in Sterling, Colorado, had been caught in the mix-up. FourHorn went public about her case more than two years ago, filing a lawsuit that alleged the arrest violated her constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from arrest without probable cause.

The problem of mistaken arrests continues, said attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The group, which represented FourHorn, calls Denver's police work "recklessly sloppy." An ACLU mistaken identity lawsuit on behalf of four other people is pending against Colorado police agencies. A mistaken identity arrest occurs almost every day, said policing experts and officials at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. But most people taken into custody are released shortly after the mistake is realized. Since the FourHorn case, the ACLU found at least 237 cases in Colorado in which police may have arrested the wrong person. The figure is likely a small sample since police often release those wrongfully arrested before the first court appearance...

But the problem doesn't exist solely in Colorado. In New York this month, a 37-year-old man filed his second lawsuit against the New York Police Department, alleging he was wrongfully arrested twice -- even after receiving a $120,000 settlement for an earlier mistaken arrest...

[panader0]

1. I'd take a false arrest for $120,000

[KittyWampus]

2. who knows what ends up in "the system" as a result. It might be wrong, but it'll be there.

I can't imagine being flip about this happening to myself.

[panader0]

6. I'm not trying to be flip

When I did 48 hours for a DUI six years ago, I had to pay $75 bucks per day for my delightful accomodations. $120,000 grand
is enough money to last me for several years.

[KansDem]

4. $120,000? I'll take $1,200,000!

$120,000 is chump change these days. Why, it's hardly a bankster bonus anymore!

[rcrush]

8. I'd ask for more.

The lawyer takes a third of it and I'm sure taxes take another huge chunk. And the amount of time it would take to fight the case and actually win that $120 grand. I'd ask for closer to a million.

[sharesunited]

10. I don't think damage awards get taxed as income.

They are supposed to compensate you for something taken.

[truedelphi]

11. I believe that damage awards like other types of

Insurance claims settlement are exempt, but I could be wrong.

When we read that someone who was made a quadriplegic by a car accident, receives 2.5 million as settlement, we think, "Boy what a lot of money."

But that person who receives the money has to pay for caregivers 24/7, and increased health needs.

When the Republicans say they want tort reform, and point to Europe as a place where there are no huge award settlements - they conveniently leave out the fact that since the "socialized" medical system in Europe takes care of disabled people fairly well, there is not the huge need there that exists here.

[lonestarnot]

3. Are they following the path of Ohio, clerks and warrants?

So we're doing away with the fourth ammendment now or what?

[pipi_k]

5. This is actually the subject

of some of my worst nightmares...

mistaken identity and false arrest. Or being arrested or "detained" merely because I happen to "look suspicious".


I have multiple anxiety disorders. I often get nervous out in public because of anxiety or panic. To someone who doesn't know this, I probably would look "suspicious".

I also have agoraphobia, so if I were to be arrested or "detained", that would be it. I would probably never leave the fucking house again. Not that I go out of the house a lot now...


anyway, there are a few people out there who have the same name I do. I'm hoping they're law abiding citizens, at the very least.

[PufPuf23]

7. One wonders if there was some racism/racial profiling here

given the name "FourHorn" that sounds American Indian.

I grew up and live now in my older years as a caucasian in an area that has a high Indian population and the bias by law enforcement is blatant though not as blatant as in the 50s through 70s.

I have Indian friends dating from childhood that have lived similar circumstances but have have been treated far differently by LE and local federal authorities because they are Indian.

[liberalhistorian]

9. Hubby and I are white but we live on an Indian reservation,

have lived on several reservations in the state the past few years. The racial profiling in the border towns is very real and horrendous. It even exists within the reservation itself, usually in towns that are predominantly white. What's even worse is that too many whites have no problem with it and often even condone it. Anyone with an Indian-sounding name can be fair game.

[Zoigal]

12. Our adopted Native American son without an Indian sounding

name has even had problems. And he is a successful, college educated business man
with a very easy going demeanor.....z

[JoeyT]

17. They probably assume he's from

Mexico or South America. I get it a lot.
I've been threatened with deportment for being uncooperative.
Uncooperative being defined as responding to "When did your family move here?" with "Uh. Something like 15000 years ago."

[Echo In Light]

13. "They wouldn't tell me the details," she said.

[Hepburn]

14. My husband was a criminal defense attorney and...

...he practiced in SoCal. There are a lot of common Hispanic last names that basically are Spanish for Smith or Jones. And with the first nasme of Jose ~~ well, you can guess home many men there are by that name in SoCal. Our office had one client who was picked up CONSTANTLY in the Inland Empire (Riverside, San Bernardino Counties) for the warrants of another person. Except for the name, these two guys were as similar as Sarah Palin and Barack Obama.

Finally, one of the judges issued an order that before anyone with that name was picked up on warrants, the arresting agency was to contact him directly to ascertain if they had the right man.

What a fucking mess that was!

[d.gibbs]

15. Don't they teach positive identification in the police academy

(the school, not the movie)

[Papa Boule]

16. She spells her last name upper and lower case computer style? n/t

[liberalhistorian]

18. There are a lot of Native American

names that are like that. I didn't even really notice that; guess I'm used to seeing it here! Then again, there are Dutch and German names like Van Whatever and no one seems to bat an eyelash over it.

[TexasObserver]

19. They don't care, because in the police state, they don't have to.

Unfortunately, police acting criminally has become far more prevalent than it was before Bush II let them go wild nationwide.

[troubledamerican]

20. Denver cops are rabid, drooling spiders

Just Google Denver + police and you'll see a litany of abuse.