Yesterday the ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit against City and County of Denver, as well as a handful of Denver law enforcement officers, for falsely arresting and imprisoning five completely innocent Coloradans. In most of these "mistaken identity" arrests, the ACLU of Colorado's clients were denied the right to appear promptly before a judge and explain that the police had the wrong person. Four of the five victims of these mistaken identity cases were arrested on a warrant that was issued for a completely different person.
The plaintiffs' stories are just unreal.
ACLU client Muse Jama was at home studying for a college exam when two Denver police officers falsely arrested him under a warrant for a person named Ahmed Alia, who was wanted for felony aggravated auto theft. Jama spent eight days in Denver jails, booked under the name “Ahmed Alia,” before he was released on bail. Jama was denied his right to appear before a judge, and police refused to heed the red flags—like the fact that Jama did not remotely match the mug shot of Alia they had, and Jama lacked the facial scars that Alia was known to have. But here's the best part: When Jama was arrested, he had $80 in his wallet. When he was finally released on bond, the Denver jailers reimbursed him for that amount with a check made out to Ahmed Alia, thereby making it impossible for Jama to get his $80 back.
Jose Ernesto Ibarra was mistakenly arrested and held for a whopping 26 days on warrants for a different man who was wanted for outstanding warrant traffic violations. But another kicker: Despite acknowledging that they had apprehended the wrong person, Denver Sheriff deputies refused to release Ibarra until the $274 fine owed by the suspect named in the warrant was paid. Ibarra's wife had to pay the fine just to get her husband out of jail.
Samuel Powell Moore was arrested four separate times on a warrant for a different person; the fourth arrest took place after the real suspect had died. After the fourth arrest, Moore spent eight days in jail before he saw a judge and was released.
Finally, there's the story of public high school teacher Dennis Michael Smith. Smith was visiting a former student at the Denver Country Jail last January when police mistook him for Dennis Allen Smith—a man with tattoos, a criminal history, and an active arrest warrant (not to mention a different middle name) Now, the teacher had been confused with Dennis Allen Smith before, and carried a letter in his car from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) definitively stating that he is not Dennis Allen Smith. When Denver deputies tried to arrest Dennis Michael Smith as Dennis Allen Smith, the former asked if his friend could retrieve the CBI letter from the car to prove they had the wrong person. They refused. Denver deputies arrested Dennis Michael Smith, not even bothering to check for the tattoos they knew Dennis Allen Smith had, and sent Dennis Michael Smith to city jail.
You can see pictures of the plaintiffs on the ACLU of Colorado's webpage for the case, FourHorn v. City and County of Denver, and read more ridiculous details in the complaint.
