Police arrest/jail innocent woman (wrong name/residence/license plates)

[rainbow4321]

Geez...way to go McKinney police :sarcasm:



The rest of the article says she was allowed to "reapply" for her job, got it back, but not before she had used up all her sick/vacation time.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/030607dnmetmistakenid.395f130.html

For hours, Christi Hernandez cried inconsolably in a cell at the Collin County Jail. She'd been at work in the Lovejoy High School cafeteria in Allen when she was called to the back of the kitchen and arrested.

"I thought they were kidding, because I hadn't done anything wrong. But they told me they weren't kidding," said Ms. Hernandez, who found herself accused of selling cocaine to an undercover detective. "I didn't do it, but I didn't know how I was going to prove I didn't do it. I was upset. I was scared."

She didn't do it. The woman McKinney police were looking for spells her first name differently, has a different middle name, lives in a different town and has a different license plate number. What saved Ms. Hernandez, however, was the lack of a tattoo.

(snip)

But Ms. Hernandez's troubles were far from over. She had to post $2,500 bail and hire an attorney. And the sucker punch, as she calls it, came four days after her Jan. 25 arrest, when, on her 35th birthday, she was fired from her job.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'll pay her to be her lawyer. n/t

[rainbow4321]

2. DA office downplaying the arrest ("dismissed after *only* one day")

Yeah, guy, and in that ONE day this woman's job was lost, reputation was ruined, and she started having attorney fees. "One day", my ass.


http://www.planostar.com/articles/2007/03/07/mckinney_courier-gazette/news/bnews01.txt

Christi Hernandez said after her husband posted her bond, she met with Hardin after obtaining a copy of the McKinney police report for the Apr. 29, 2006 incident. Hardin said they discovered that a Texas license plate number listed in the report actually pointed to Christy M. Hernandez, of Anna.
<snip>

“In this case, we immediately investigated the defendant's claim, determined that her claim was valid, and dismissed her case only one day after she was arrested,” Davis said. “While cases of mistaken are extremely rare, we will continue to investigate them to ensure that no innocent person is prosecuted in this county.”

<snip>

Hardin said his office is working to expunge the charge from Hernandez's record. He also said his office sent the city of McKinney a 30-day letter of intent, but the city declined to make any offer of compensation to his client.

“We have a lot of avenues to pursue,” Hardin said. “She's been slandered, libeled, indicted, arrested and called a drug dealer. We are pursuing whatever course of action is available.”

[Solon]

3. Sue their asses!!!!

This is stupid, yeah, it was a mistake on the Police/DA's part, but it was a PREVENTABLE mistake, of all things, DOUBLE CHECK THE IDENTITY OF A SUSPECT, hell, make sure you are in the RIGHT area for crying out loud!

She should at least get the bail money back, and have the county pay for her lawyer's fees. But she'll probably have to go to court just to get restitution. Also the DA should be fired, for stupidity.

[Richard Steele]

5. Preventable by anyone who could read at a grade-school level.

Not even that, actually- I don't "READ" german, but
I could compare two german names side-by-side and
recognize whether they were identical or not.

Someone should be fired over this.

[Solon]

6. Hell, they could have avoided the embarrasment by asking for her ID...

or, hell, just her name would have sufficed, she had a DIFFERENT middle name entirely than the suspect. That reminds me, she will need to get the record of the arrest expunged, or good luck trying to get a different job.

This type of shit is just inexcusable, and I blame everyone in charge of executing the warrant for arrest, from the Cops, to the DA, then only person who actually is blameless in the local government would be the Judge who signed off on the warrant, how was he supposed to know that the cops are idiots?

[Richard Steele]

8. Yup. Utter incompetence and indifference, right down the line.

How the hell do they serve a warrant WITHOUT getting
a positive ID? What, do the REAL criminals there just
point at someone else and say, "That's the guy" whenever
these cops show up looking for them?

And I'm curious about how the cops ended up there in the
first place. We are MISSING a piece of the puzzle here.

The WARRANT didn't contain ANY info that would direct the cops
to this woman, even by mistake...so who or what DID lead them there?

[Solon]

10. Yeah, definite incompetence, but I was just thinking that her record...

may not be affected. Since it was a case of mistaken identity, due to the stupidity of the cops, I don't even think the arrest would be under her SS#, another thing they could have checked, but didn't. Fucking idiots, all the way down the line. Someone will have to pay, and pay big, hopefully, she will never HAVE to work ever again after this.

[Occulus]

7. Freepers and their ilk think somebody already was. n/t

[dkofos]

4. She should be a rich woman soon.

Fucking dumbass McKinney cops.

[onethatcares]

9. " t he procedures they used were not released"

what the police did was cruise through the parking lot, run the tags, run the names that came up on the tags, Bingo. It's your turn in the donut hole, good luck getting out.

[Richard Steele]

11. That would certainly be the simplest explanation.

I was thinking along the lines of: someone who had a grudge
against her learned of the warrant for the other woman, and
called in a "tip" as harrassment.

But Occam's Razor says your notion is more likely the correct one.