Jennifer Heath Field shivered on a mat on the ground, her again pressed in opposition to one other inmate’s again, as they desperately tried to remain heat. The air-con blew a frigid breeze by means of the Broward County Jail in south Florida. Guards walked by carrying coats and beanies.
It was Christmas Eve. Her son, a Marine, was leaving on Dec. 27 to spend three years stationed in Okanawa, Japan.
And the police had arrested the incorrect “Jennifer.”
Jennifer Heath Field was arrested on Dec. 24, 2022, as a result of she shared two thirds of a reputation with one other girl who was needed for youngster endangerment. (Fox Information Digital/Broward Sheriff’s Workplace by way of Institute for Justice)
“The truth that it was simply really easy to have arrested me simply makes you query what number of extra folks [are] on the market like this,” Field advised Fox News Digital, sitting in her Texas dwelling two years after she was arrested and jailed for 3 nights on another person’s warrant.
Field is now suing the Broward Sheriff’s Office, alleging deputies violated her Fourth Modification rights in opposition to unreasonable search and seizure once they did not do “fundamental due diligence to verify whether or not the particular person they deliberate to arrest was truly topic to the arrest warrant.”
‘I believe y’all have the incorrect particular person.’
Field and her husband rushed to the entrance of the road, desirous to get off the cruise ship on Christmas Eve 2022. They’d simply spent six days at sea with Field’s brother, celebrating his second restoration from most cancers. Now, Field needed to get dwelling to have a good time Christmas along with her children, the final time for a minimum of three years the household would all be collectively earlier than her son left for Okinawa.
However when she scanned her badge to disembark, employees stated safety wanted to fulfill with Field. Quickly, police and Customs and Border Safety surrounded Field and her husband.
“They requested if I used to be Jennifer Heath,” she recalled. Field saved Heath as her center title after marrying her husband.
She repeatedly requested the regulation enforcement officers standing round her what was occurring. Ultimately, they stated they’d a warrant for her from Harris County, Texas.
“It is for endangering a baby,” a deputy stated.
Field’s eyes went large. Her husband stated, “I believe y’all have the incorrect particular person.”
Police had a warrant for “Jennifer Delcarmen Heath,” who was 23 years youthful and almost half a foot shorter than the “Jennifer” who had simply gotten off a cruise ship.
Physique digicam and patrol automotive video exhibits Jennifer Field’s arrest on Christmas Eve 2022. (Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace by way of Institute for Justice)
Based on courtroom filings from July 2022, Jennifer Delcarmen Heath was accused of endangering her youngsters, ages 1 and three.
Jennifer Heath Field, who was 48 years outdated on the time, had no minor youngsters. The suspect on the warrant was youthful than certainly one of her daughters.
“Endangering a baby? What youngster would I endanger?” Field requested, shocked.
Officers handcuffed her and put her in a sheriff’s workplace SUV, the place inside video exhibits Field persevering with to insist there should be some mistake as she was transported to the Broward County Jail.
The reserving officer stated she did not see any warrants within the system for Field when she scanned her driver’s license, however Deputy Peter Peraza insisted that they e-book her anyway, in keeping with the lawsuit filed in opposition to the sheriff’s workplace, Peraza and different deputies and corrections employees.
Field’s attorneys on the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties law firm, stated Broward County deputies ignored a minimum of 10 vital discrepancies between Field and the topic of the warrant, together with the huge age and peak disparities, totally different Social Safety and FBI numbers and contrasting eye, hair and pores and skin colours. The one data that implicated Field was a replica of her DMV picture that had been hooked up to the warrant.
Field felt humiliated and terrified as she was strip searched, given a jail uniform and positioned in a chilly, soiled cell, the place she stated she witnessed steady screaming and violence within the adjoining males’s space.
She awakened Christmas morning after a stressed evening shivering on the ground subsequent to a stranger and was denied bond as a result of the opposite “Jennifer” had an extradition warrant, in keeping with the lawsuit. Harris County had as much as 30 days to return get her, an officer allegedly advised Field.
At dwelling, each Field’s brother and her husband have been combating layers of paperwork. Officers with Harris County stated they wanted BSO to ship over the warrant and Field’s fingerprints for comparability, however BSO refused, in keeping with the go well with.
Jennifer Field has three youngsters, who ranged in age from 19 to 30 on the time of her arrest. The suspect on the kid endangerment warrant was 25 years outdated, Hispanic and 5 inches shorter than Field. (Courtesy Jennifer Field)
Lastly, the night of Dec. 26, Field was in a position to file a criticism, asking BSO to match her fingerprints to these of the suspect.
Field walked out of jail round 10 a.m. on Dec. 27. Her son was boarding his flight.
“They took from me issues that I’ll by no means get again,” Field stated. “I will by no means get that point again with my children. I will by no means get to have that chance to have these recollections.”
She recalled speaking to the officer who escorted her out of the detention middle about all of the issues she had missed out on over the vacations. His demeanor began “fully conceited,” she stated, however softened when she advised him she did not get to see her son earlier than he left for the Marine Corps.
“‘Issues occur,'” Field remembered the officer saying.
That was the closest she ever bought to an apology.
‘No worker misconduct discovered’
The Broward Sheriff’s Workplace advised Fox News Digital in an announcement that it “sympathizes with the troublesome scenario Ms. Jennifer Heath Field was in,” however blamed Harris County for the mishap.
“Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace, Customs and Border Patrol wouldn’t have flagged Ms. Field, BSO wouldn’t have been notified, and she or he wouldn’t have been arrested,” a spokesperson wrote.
The assertion added that the “actions of the BSO deputy concerned in arresting Ms. Field have been reviewed by the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace Inner Affairs Division, and no worker misconduct was discovered.”
Institute for Justice legal professional Jared McClain stated that whereas Harris County and CBP additionally made errors within the case, it “doesn’t excuse the conduct of Officer Peraza and the Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace.”
“They’d an obligation to make sure that the particular person they have been arresting was truly the topic of the warrant–especially within the face of Jennifer’s repeated and credible insistence that they’d the incorrect particular person.”
CBP flagged Field’s title to BSO earlier than she left for the cruise, in keeping with her legal professionals, giving deputies ample time to verify her id “earlier than they determined to arrest the incorrect Jennifer.”
GEORGIA CITY TO PAY $55,000, TRAIN OFFICERS ON FREE SPEECH AFTER VETERAN ARRESTED FOR ‘PANHANDLING’
Jennifer Heath Field is certainly one of a minimum of 160 folks named “Jennifer Heath” dwelling in Texas, in keeping with her lawsuit. (Fox Information Digital)
BSO made related errors in a minimum of two different mistaken identity arrests, together with one through which a person spent 5 days in jail earlier than police ran his fingerprints and confirmed he was the incorrect particular person, in keeping with the go well with.
“Regardless of this historical past of jailing harmless individuals who share a reputation with somebody with an excellent warrant, Broward County did not adequately practice its officers or implement new insurance policies, practices, or customs guaranteeing that BSO employees confirm the identities of arrestees,” the go well with alleges.
BSO didn’t reply Fox’s query about whether or not the division had made any coverage adjustments after Field’s arrest.
The go well with seeks an admission that the defendants violated Field’s constitutional rights, in addition to damages.
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As Field ready to embellish her Christmas tree this 12 months, she advised Fox Information Digital she needs to see extra checks and balances put in place so nobody else endures what she went by means of.
“I need to maintain these folks accountable,” she stated. “You are messing with folks’s lives. It isn’t simply [fun and games] or no matter and, ‘I’m gonna put somebody behind bars, I am gonna examine off the field, and I am gonna go dwelling to my household.’ You damage so many individuals on this scenario apart from simply myself.”
Elizabeth Heckman contributed to the accompanying video.
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