How many others are sitting in jail due to poor record. keeping by the police?
http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/13456157/detail.html
51-Year-Old Woman Mistakenly Jailed For Nine Days
POSTED: 5:47 pm EDT June 6, 2007
UPDATED: 11:10 am EDT June 7, 2007
KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- A 51-year-old Kissimmee woman was thrown in jail for nine days all because of a case of mistaken identity. She went to the police station to get fingerprinted for a new job and that's when her troubles started.
A lawsuit filed in circuit court alleges false imprisonment of a woman who was seeking a simple request from her local police department.
Maria Carrasquillo moved from Puerto Rico to Central Florida in 1994. She had never been in trouble with the law, until March 2005. That's when she visited Kissimmee police to voluntarily get her fingerprints taken. She needed that done to apply for work as a licensed practical nurse.
Instead of it being a brief visit, Carrasquillo was arrested for an outstanding warrant. A woman in New York City, with the same name, was wanted on drug-related charges.Carrasquillo spent nine days in the county jail before someone at the Kissimmee Police Department checked the identity of the New York suspect and realized they didn't match.
The lawsuit alleges it took months before the court dismissed the case. The officer, who made the arrest, Anthony Bosworth, is no longer with Kissimmee police. Eyewitness News checked and his personnel file said he was a competent employee, but resigned in May 2005. That was two months after Carrasquillo's arrest and less than two years after he was hired as a patrol officer.
Carrasquillo's lawyer said a language barrier may have made things worse the day of the arrest.
"If they had done a background check, brought in a Spanish speaking person, anything would have revealed they had the wrong person," said attorney Mike Smith.
The lawsuit also accuses the city of having an inadequate system of reviewing its charging affidavits. Eyewitness News spoke with the city of Kissimmee's attorney, Don Smallwood, who only said, "The city defends these cases vigorously."
2007-06-07
09:15:21
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