Mother wrongfully arrested after cruise is released from jail

[brfan]

Guess it wouldn't bother me at all having law enforcement at my cabin door throwing handcuffs on me and hauling my happy posterior off to jail after a great vacation in front of my family and a boat load of people either....

I am sure I would just be saying..."oopsie, they made a booboo"....:rolleyes:

 

You forgot to mention the inevitable and humiliating strip search and being locked up with murderers and other dangerous people wondering if any of them would attack her. I bet she got very little sleep the entire time she was there.

[Cruzaholic41]

When the general, law abiding population has to be afraid of the police, and humiliated by them, then yes....big compensation is deserved by the victim.

 

They detained her against her will. That's called kidnapping where I'm from. She was put in despicable conditions (jail).

 

I don't care whose fault it was, someone needs to get more than a hand slap.

 

If I were Carnival, the police dept, etc, I think I'd be lawyering up. and preparing my "butt kissing" routine, as well as opening that checkbook WIDE.

 

Punitive damages alone would be worth a number with 6 zeroes in it.

 

If I were Carnival, I think I might be looking at a Grand Suite for gratis when this lady starts focusing her lawyer on them.

 

Once again.....No, Carnival is not liable and this was in no way their fault. Why do so many of you think Carnival is to blame for this? :rolleyes:

 

Oh, and it's not called Kidnapping. It's called False Arrest. And yes, she will be compensated, but one night does not equate to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Let's try to apply a little reason here.

[jetskier]

Guess it wouldn't bother me at all having law enforcement at my cabin door throwing handcuffs on me and hauling my happy posterior off to jail after a great vacation in front of my family and a boat load of people either....

I am sure I would just be saying..."oopsie, they made a booboo"....:rolleyes:

 

Naw, you were just looking forward to the FULL cavity search.:D

 

Dave

[Crusin6]

again...many of us here are going the route..."it was a mistake..she needs to get over it..no harm done...a big screen TV should do it(huh)"

 

It is a slippery slope my friends......and while I do not and will not ever approve of silly lawsuits....incidents exactly like this one need to be brought to the forefront....expert..if there are any lawyers...brought in...and yes...possibly new law needs to be made here.....

 

 

Like requiring some way of being 100% positive that you have the right person before they are moved even one inch from where they stand!!!

 

Safeguards need to be in place and for those of you that will refuse to see this fact......I hope you are all still here 20 years from now...if only to say..."why didn't we stop it when we could"

 

For those of you that remember 30 years ago...just remember all the times that you said..."That will never happen here"

 

Think long and hard...think controversial subjects.....think smoking bans in restaurants and bars....but just remember to never say never.....and this situation is a perfect example of where a downward slope could and probably will lead to.

 

and no...I am not overreacting here......just think of where it could lead....not a pretty picture

[nrdsb4]

No, but they were part of the processing of these people. :rolleyes:

 

Someone at some point alerted the police... Was it immigration? Was it Carnival? Why didn't this problem show up BEFORE she cruised? ...All things to make you go hmmmmm

and yeah, I would have been calling on the "powers that be" at Carnival, too.

 

All cruise lines are required to submit the passenger manifest to authorities. From there, they have no knowledge of or say in what happens next. Carnival couldn't "alert the police" - how would they know there was an arrest warrant out for someone with that name?! They are not doing the background checks-they are in the business of providing cruise experiences and making lots of money in the process.

 

This was inexcusable, but Carnival shares zero blame for it. The same would go for any cruise line. I don't blame this lady for being furious-but the anger needs to be directed at the right people, not just the ones with the deepest pockets.

[Cruzaholic41]

again...many of us here are going the route..."it was a mistake..she needs to get over it..no harm done...a big screen TV should do it(huh)"

 

I agree, and a false arrest is a false arrest, regardless of what mistakes were made and when. A woman's liberty was still wrongly taken away.

 

However, calling for hundreds of thousands, or a million dollars is very excessive. That would set of precedence the locality and us tax payers can not afford.

 

Let me give you another example. When I was a police officer, I once arrested a man on a felony warrant. There was no identification issue because I knew him from past contacts. The warrant was valid and confirmed by the warrants division. The man swore to me the warrant was already taken care of. However, my information from dispatch was the warrant was active and confirmed. I had to arrest him. By the way, in case anyone doesn't know, there is no officer discretion on warrants - They are court orders that "command" officers to make the arrest. Anyways, it turned out he was, in fact, already arrested on that warrant a month prior, but someone in warrants failed to remove it from the system.

 

He sued the department (rightfully so) for false arrest. He and the department, and their attorneys, settled for $10,000. All parties agreed it was fair for one night in jail.

[tracyanns]

What if she was indeed that person and they "called" her to some place, do you think the person would have freely went there?

 

Law enforcement just doesnt do things that way, if they come about the ship you are leaving in handcuffs.

 

Another article

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/state_news/090710-woman-arrested-in-a-case-of-mistaken-identity

 

Seems a clerk at Osceola County Sheriffs Office entered in the wrong information and included the cruise pax info with the hookers.

 

Thank you for the follow up, now we know it was a clerical error and that the arresting department didn't have her photo or fingerprints when she was taken into custody...so the police did actually do their job correctly by arresting someone, unforutantely someone put the wrong info in the computer. I have no doubt she will get some sort of settlement but the only error they made was not requesting the photos and fingerprints immediately. Since the arrest warrant seemed to have some of this passengers info on it they actually did what they were supposed to...

 

And not sure how many of you have been to jail or prison lately but they don't put 20 people inone big cell and mix prostitutes and mass murderers together...so she wasn't really in any danger...my dad worked in the prisono system for 25 years and they don't do it that way...that is in the movies...

[tracyanns]

Guess it wouldn't bother me at all having law enforcement at my cabin door throwing handcuffs on me and hauling my happy posterior off to jail after a great vacation in front of my family and a boat load of people either....

I am sure I would just be saying..."oopsie, they made a booboo"....:rolleyes:

 

When I was 20 I was driving home from college and I got pulled over for a broken tail light..within minutes I was asked to step out of the car as I had a warrant out for my arrest. I had my 6 month old daughter in the back seat...he took her in her car seat and put it in the police car and cuffed me and put me in the back of the car...I got taken to the county jail where I was photographed and processed. Only after that did they go into detail as to what I was arrested for...I had a traffic violation I got a ticket for and on the original ticket the cop had written the date of the court appearance on it but it was not on my copy which I had to go to court and show the judge later that week. I had to get my boss to come down and bail me out of jail...and do you know what the judge said to me when he saw the ticket with no court date on it...sorry, the officer made an error. Please pay your ticket and we will remove this from your record. I was embarrased and humiliated and it was an error...it happens and it is VERY unfortunate when it happens to you but it did and that was the end of it...

[Kurbanfan]

Thank you for the follow up, now we know it was a clerical error and that the arresting department didn't have her photo or fingerprints when she was taken into custody...so the police did actually do their job correctly by arresting someone, unforutantely someone put the wrong info in the computer. I have no doubt she will get some sort of settlement but the only error they made was not requesting the photos and fingerprints immediately. Since the arrest warrant seemed to have some of this passengers info on it they actually did what they were supposed to...

 

And not sure how many of you have been to jail or prison lately but they don't put 20 people inone big cell and mix prostitutes and mass murderers together...so she wasn't really in any danger...my dad worked in the prisono system for 25 years and they don't do it that way...that is in the movies...

 

Only:confused: I would call that a HUGE ERROR:rolleyes: Not even having a photo:confused:It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks......it only matters to the woman that was arrested. She experienced it.....not I or anyone else........

If she feels she needs to be compensated more power to her.......I know I wouldn't let it go...........and I'm gonna go out on a limb here but more then likely she is a taxpayer too:rolleyes:

[graphicguy]

Not blaming the officer here. And, we can play semantics if you like. Another person holds someone against their will, it's called kidnapping. The police hold an innocent person against their will....it's called false arrest. Same thing. The former holds you in a private location, the latter puts you behind bars. The action is the same.

 

As far as Carnival is concerned, I would think they would actually ask the police to provide a picture of the person they plan to arrest, even before they go on board. As was noted, the SS# was wrong, as was the physical description. They could have acted as another "check and balance", and point out the discrepancies (the passenger's pic is on file for the ID, so easy to see the mistake).

 

I can hear the conversation now....

 

Carnival: "your picture doesn't look anything like the picture we tok of this passenger. Further, the SS# doesn't match up".

 

Cop: "Doesn't matter. I'm arresting this lady."

 

Carnival: "We can't stop you, but we want you to make a note that we think you're totally screwed up based on the information you've provided. Further, we're bringing in our own security just to witness this and protest it, too."

 

Cop: "Whatever...regardless of the pictures not matching, nor the non-matching SS#s, I'm not even going to radio our HQ to log the huge discrepancy before I make what looks like a huge mistake."

 

You can slice this, dice this, try to sugar coat it, but you damn well better believe I'm getting a sleazy lawyer that specializes in this type of thing. And, I'm going to do it as publicly as I was arrested.

[nrdsb4]

I think my point is why they couldn't have called her to a private room and done things privately. Why taken out in front of the other passengers.

 

Again, doubtful Carnival decided to make this arrest a public spectacle and forced the police to adhere to some kind of Carnival arrest script. :rolleyes: Secondly, if they take her to a private room, they still have to leave the private room eventually and she has to walk in handcuffs through the ship and out into the great big world for all to see. The police are not remotely concerned with preserving an accused criminal's privacy during an arrest. The most they would probably do would be let her wear a jacket over her head, but if I were her, I'd find that even more humiliating. Like I was admitting I had done something to be ashamed of.

 

The authorities screwed up big time-they are the ones that need to take the heat for this.

[nrdsb4]

Not blaming the officer here. And, we can play semantics if you like. Another person holds someone against their will, it's called kidnapping. The police hold an innocent person against their will....it's called false arrest. Same thing. The former holds you in a private location, the latter puts you behind bars. The action is the same.

 

Not exactly the same. The first action gets you arrested and put in prison if convicted. The second gets the agency for which you work sued. Big difference. Not to mention that the intent is completely different.

[brfan]

Thank you for the follow up, now we know it was a clerical error and that the arresting department didn't have her photo or fingerprints when she was taken into custody...so the police did actually do their job correctly by arresting someone, unforutantely someone put the wrong info in the computer. I have no doubt she will get some sort of settlement but the only error they made was not requesting the photos and fingerprints immediately. Since the arrest warrant seemed to have some of this passengers info on it they actually did what they were supposed to...

 

And not sure how many of you have been to jail or prison lately but they don't put 20 people inone big cell and mix prostitutes and mass murderers together...so she wasn't really in any danger...my dad worked in the prisono system for 25 years and they don't do it that way...that is in the movies...

 

The only way she wouldn't have been in danger would be to be in a cell by herself. Otherwise all it would take is one prisoner in the same cell who is whacked out on drugs/mental issues to beat the crap out of her.

[graphicguy]

Not exactly the same. The first action gets you arrested and put in prison if convicted. The second gets the agency for which you work sued. Big difference. Not to mention that the intent is completely different.

Both had innocent people held against their will. Both are wrong, even to the same degree, perpetrated by two different groups. Both acts are equally egregious. If you want to throw all the police dept who touched this case into jail, that's another topic.

 

OK...so the intent of the police is to subdue (handcuff) and humiliate (in front of a large group of people) their victim. The kidnapper's intent is to subdue their victim. Don't know if they want to humiliate them. So yeah, there's a little bit of a difference.

[Cruzaholic41]

Not blaming the officer here. And, we can play semantics if you like. Another person holds someone against their will, it's called kidnapping. The police hold an innocent person against their will....it's called false arrest. Same thing. The former holds you in a private location, the latter puts you behind bars. The action is the same.

 

Wrong again. Kidnapping is done with criminal, malice intent. False arrest is done with good intentions, but as a result of human error (most cases). It most certainly is not the same thing.

[catzcrazy]

I wish I lived there with you, well, except for the cold winters! Is she entitled to something? Yes, perhaps a few thousand for some mental distress...it was only 40 hours, not even 2 days...she is not going to get millions. She was not mistreated in anyway or starved or beaten. The police went in to do their job and they did it correctly, it was just bad information they were given. This has happened more than once around here and after they pay the lawyers they never really get anything as it was an error. No one lost a limb or life over it.

 

I guess this is why the USofA is referred to as the SueSofA...everyone wants money for nothing. I think the better person would take an apology and get on with it. I would be mortified but I don't think it warrants a million dollar payout like some are saying...the more people that get these ridiculous payouts just makes us pay more to live here...the city has to get that money from somewhere so everyone pays in the end...

 

I am not one prone to suing even when I was given a wrong prescription by a pharmacy - they called me to settle before I could have gotten a lawyer anyway - but in this case I think the lady needs to be reimbursed for whatever the attorney's cost and we all know they do not come cheap plus a little something for mental duress, but not millions and maybe not even thousands - the police and everyone else seemed to be doing their jobs but she should be put back to the point that there are no financial implications for her and her family.

[catzcrazy]

Wasn't anyone else finger printed when you got your passport? DH and I were. Simple check of finger prints should have solved this issue very quickly. If she used a passport of course.

 

Sorry but I feel she should sue the heck out of them. There is clearly a skin coloring DIFFERENCE in this case. Guess maybe someone might have been color blind in this case.

 

My DH and I were not printed for our passports - of course we originally got ours over 29 years ago and then got them renewed, but nope - no fingerprints.:confused:

[graphicguy]

Wrong again. Kidnapping is done with criminal, malice intent. False arrest is done with good intentions, but as a result of human error (most cases). It most certainly is not the same thing.

OK....so handcuffing a small harmless lady is OK if it's done with "good intent". Where's the good intent in that?

 

You say it's human error. I say it was laziness and lackadaisical work on the part of the police that they DIDN'T CARE of the SS# was different, They DIDN'T CARE that ther person who they were supposed to arrest looked nothing like the person they actually arrested (aside from the fact they were both female).

 

Moreover, not only did they not care, they made zero effort after seeing so much evidence that something wasn't right, to question and inquire about who they were actually arresting.

 

So, yeah....I see a lot of "ill-intent" in all of those things.

[Cruzaholic41]

OK....so handcuffing a small harmless lady is OK if it's done with "good intent". Where's the good intent in that?

 

You say it's human error. I say it was laziness and lackadaisical work on the part of the police that they DIDN'T CARE of the SS# was different, They DIDN'T CARE that ther person who they were supposed to arrest looked nothing like the person they actually arrested (aside from the fact they were both female).

 

Moreover, not only did they not care, they made zero effort after seeing so much evidence that something wasn't right, to question and inquire about who they were actually arresting.

 

So, yeah....I see a lot of "ill-intent" in all of those things.

 

How do you know they DIDN'T CARE? How do you know exactly what happened while they were identifying this girl? Did one of these officers announce that in a press conference or something? The difference between you and me is I am speaking fact and reality. You are embellishing and creating hypotheticals. What happened to this woman is bad enough. It is ridiculous to create imaginary conversations or scenarios in your own mind to make it sound even worse.

[Mikel1733]

Thank you for the follow up, now we know it was a clerical error and that the arresting department didn't have her photo or fingerprints when she was taken into custody...so the police did actually do their job correctly by arresting someone, unforutantely someone put the wrong info in the computer. I have no doubt she will get some sort of settlement but the only error they made was not requesting the photos and fingerprints immediately. Since the arrest warrant seemed to have some of this passengers info on it they actually did what they were supposed to...

 

And not sure how many of you have been to jail or prison lately but they don't put 20 people inone big cell and mix prostitutes and mass murderers together...so she wasn't really in any danger...my dad worked in the prisono system for 25 years and they don't do it that way...that is in the movies...

 

The county I live in just completed a new jail system and I toured it. It is made up of pods which house up to 18 prisoners/detainees per pod. Food is served in the pod, showers are in the pod, and a computer which allows the inmates to communicate with family and lawyers, all without inmates ever leaving the pod area. So yes you are put in with a number of detainees even in the new facilities.

[zqvol]

This is all amazing, thank goodness the lady has no case as everyone involved has immunity. Any lawyer in her right mind will tell the woman to forget about it. there is no one to recover from.

 

I am just curious about how many people would be concerned if this were a terrorist that was stopped instead of the lady. If you can't take the lady into custody until you figure out that it is the wrong person then you can't take the possible terrorists into custody until you figure out that it is the right person.

 

Let them both walk?

 

Arrest them both?

 

You decide toady, 3 days before 9/11.

Can't have it both ways

[Cruzaholic41]

So yes you are put in with a number of detainees even in the new facilities.

 

Yes, but it's usually with like detainess. In County jail facilities, serious criminals, such as murderers or sex predators, are not kept in general population. They are kept isolated pending trial and transfer to state or federal prisons.

[Mikel1733]

This is all amazing, thank goodness the lady has no case as everyone involved has immunity. Any lawyer in her right mind will tell the woman to forget about it. there is no one to recover from.

 

I am just curious about how many people would be concerned if this were a terrorist that was stopped instead of the lady. If you can't take the lady into custody until you figure out that it is the wrong person then you can't take the possible terrorists into custody until you figure out that it is the right person.

 

Let them both walk?

 

Arrest them both?

 

You decide toady, 3 days before 9/11.

Can't have it both ways

 

 

The second news story linked in this thread indicated the error came from a clerk in the county the warrant was issued. At the very least that clerk should be held to account in some fashion. If no one is responsible or liable why would there be any reason to not make mistakes in the future? Take away the clerks paid vacation for a year and I bet the mistake will never be made again. :D

[Mikel1733]

Yes, but it's usually with like detainess. In County jail facilities, serious criminals, such as murderers or sex predators, are not kept in general population. They are kept isolated pending trial and transfer to state or federal prisons.

 

Well if she were put into a holding cell with other prostitutes that in itself would bad enough. Many of them are drug addicts and have god knows what all sexually transmitted diseases. People here think its bad when a little kid pee's in the pool.

[nrdsb4]

My question to any law enforcement types is this: Do police always have a photo of the person named in the warrant when they arrive at the location to arrest that person? Is this standard practice?

 

I can see how a mistake could be made at the cruise ship if no photo was available to the police. Where the story seems to get crazy, however, is at the police station where one would think they would have access to the photo of the individual named in the warrant, as well as ability to compare finger prints, social security number, etc. and any other identifying information which should be available at their fingertips with today's technology.