This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Police sometimes arrest the wrong people. Usually, the officers figure out the mistake quickly and besides a huge amount awkwardness, there's little other damage.
Not always.
And now a federal judge has allowed a Texas woman's lawsuit against officers of the Broward County sheriff's office to move forward, withdrawing from them the ordinary immunity that officers mostly have.
According to the Institute for Justice, which is handling the case on behalf of Jennifer Heath Box, "In the opinion, Judge [Melissa] Damian wrote that it violates the Fourth Amendment to put the wrong person in jail when there are 'observable differences between the individual and the person described in the warrant and there was plenty of time for officers to verify the identity of the person being arrested but the officers ignored red flags and arrested the person anyways.'"
The ruling also said the deputies are not entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that shields government officials from being held liable when they violate someone's rights unless that right is "clearly established."
The ruling rejected the county's attempt to get the case dismissed.
"This Court finds that 11th Circuit case law provides several materially similar decisions that would provide the Deputies a fair warning that their conduct was unlawful," the judge said.
Box was arrested while getting off a cruise ship in Port Everglades following a family trip on Christmas Eve 2022, and spent three days in jail, before finally being released.
The IJ said, "Police had a warrant for a different Jennifer—Jennifer Delcarmen Heath—who was 23 years younger; five inches shorter; and had a different hair color, eye color, skin tone, social security number, and home address. Deputies Peter Peraza, Monica Jean, Jasmine Hines and Anthony Thorpe all at various points overlooked the evidence on the warrant which proved they had the wrong Jennifer, but moved forward with the arrest and detention anyway."
Box said she was pleased her case will move forward.
"When I was in jail, nobody would listen to me that they had arrested the wrong person, and now it feels like somebody is finally listening," she said.
The decision "makes it clear that when police overlook obvious evidence that they're arresting the wrong person, they'll be held accountable," said IJ Attorney Jared McClain. "Anyone who looked at Jennifer should have been able to tell she was not the person police wanted."
