Are the police smarter than a 5th grader 51-Year-Old Woman Mistakenly Jailed For Nine Days?

Question

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."

Answer 1

Gee - I guess if she had bothered to learn English in the 12 years she's been in the US, she might have explained her situation and not spent 9 days in jail.
Lots of people with more common names go through the same process. It happens.
She'll get a nice settlement out of the City of Kissimee, and will go on with her life.

Answer 2

That poor woman!
How hard would it have been for them to either check their system(i mean if they were able to see that a woman with that name had a warrant then they should have been able to check the woman's identity while reviewing the warrant) or they could have easily called New York and said "we believe we got your girl. What her description?"
Just goes to show: don't trust the supposed authorities to be the smart ones, they can be dumb at times!

Answer 3

I guess it took the police 9 days to figure out how to use the phone to check on the warrent.

Answer 4

I agree that the police erred in this, but this is the growing problem of our society allowing illegal immigrants into the country. English is the language of this country, but the police are having to learn Spanish to avoid violating the rights of non-citizens. Try finding a spanish interpreter in the early AM in a small town in Arkansas. Good Luck.

Answer 5

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens. This is an outrage.

Answer 6

Maybe she should have learned English - crap its been 12 - 1/2 years since she has been here.

Answer 7

imagine that !

Answer 8

UNREAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!