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A Black man spent six days in jail in Nevada as a result of police misidentified him as a convicted White felon who's greater than twice his age, in line with a federal lawsuit filed in opposition to the police departments of Henderson and Las Vegas.
(LVMPD/NDOC)
A Black man spent six days in jail in Nevada as a result of police misidentified him as a convicted White felon who's greater than twice his age, in line with a federal lawsuit filed in opposition to the police departments of Henderson and Las Vegas.
Shane Lee Brown is now asking for at the least $500,000 in damages.
Brown, 25, had completed work on January 8, 2020, and was driving in Henderson, Nevada — 14 miles exterior of Las Vegas — when Henderson Metropolis Law enforcement officials pulled him over, the lawsuit, filed in US District Courtroom of Nevada, particulars.
It was a routine visitors cease for driving an unregistered car, the Henderson Police Division instructed CNN in an announcement Monday.
Brown, who's Black, didn't have his driver’s license however as an alternative gave police his identify, Social Safety quantity and Social Safety card, the lawsuit stated. He acknowledged to police he had a visitors violation-related warrant, his legal professional later instructed CNN, and had a court docket date scheduled for the next day.
However after a data test underneath Brown’s identify, a felony warrant for an additional man named Shane Brown appeared, the lawsuit stated. Although the 2 shared the identical first and final identify, police didn't test for his or her center names, the colour of their pores and skin and date of beginning, in line with the lawsuit. Shane Neal Brown, 49, had an excellent felony bench warrant for possession or possession of a firearm by a prohibited individual, data present.
Regardless of the variations, Lee Brown was arrested and spent six days in jails at two Las Vegas-area jurisdictions — Henderson Detention Heart and Clark County Detention Heart, the lawsuit stated.
Neal Brown, in the meantime, was arrested two days after the visitors cease that put Lee Brown in jail. In accordance with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Division, Neal Brown was arrested in Needles, California, on January 10, 2020, and launched to Las Vegas Metropolitan Police on January 22, 2020.
Shannon Phenix, the general public defender assigned to Neal Brown’s case, stated Lee Brown was launched on January 14, 2020.
For 4 days, each males have been in jail on the similar time, throughout state traces.
CNN has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Division, nevertheless it declined to touch upon pending litigation.
Henderson Police keep Lee Brown was “appropriately arrested by Henderson Police for driving with a suspended license and for a contempt of court docket, failure to pay warrant issued by Henderson Municipal Courtroom,” in line with assertion to CNN.
“Mr. Brown admitted to the arresting officers that he knew his driver license was suspended and that he had visitors warrants in Henderson,” the assertion continued.
“That may have been true,” Phenix, the general public defender, instructed CNN. “However he would have solely been held on the jail on his visitors warrants and he would have been out of custody in two days, and he would have bail set on these warrants.”
Lee Brown didn't get to see a choose inside 48 hours because the legislation requires, because the man he was mistaken for had an ongoing case, and police and jail believed that they had the proper individual. In truth, he didn’t get to see a choose in any respect, Phenix instructed CNN.
Phenix stated she wasn’t even notified that an arrest had been made underneath her case with Neal Brown, as a result of Lee Brown was booked underneath a separate ID quantity — “which is a priority as a result of meaning the jail knew it wasn’t the identical individual, as a result of they took fingerprints, however they nonetheless had him held on the warrant,” Phenix stated.
As a substitute, she bought a name from the panicked mom of Lee Brown, who contacted her and requested for her assist getting her son out of jail.
Within the meantime, whereas in custody, Lee Brown repeatedly tried to elucidate to Henderson Law enforcement officials that he was not the 49-year-old Shane Neal Brown who was wished on a felony warrant.
“It felt like each phrase I stated was falling on deaf ears. Nobody gave me the time of day, and even listened to what I used to be making an attempt to elucidate to them,” Lee Brown instructed CNN.
His protests went ignored for days. “More often than not I didn’t even get a response,” he stated, including that on the time, he didn’t know the opposite Shane Brown was White.
“I didn’t know what race the man was, I knew roughly his age as a result of I had seen the beginning yr, however aside from that, I simply tried to inform them there’s no method that is me.”
Lee Brown didn’t get to see what Neal Brown seemed like as a result of he wasn’t delivered to court docket for the January 14 listening to.
“So as a result of that they had totally different ID numbers, the jail was like, properly, that’s not the correct particular person, in order that they didn’t deliver him to court docket,” Phenix defined.
Since she couldn’t present the choose her consumer, Phenix introduced mug photographs of each males to the Eighth Judicial District Courtroom in Clark County, and identified Shane Lee Brown’s didn’t match the unique photograph of the elder Brown, telling the choose police had arrested the mistaken individual. Choose Joe Hardy Jr. then ordered Lee Brown to be launched instantly.
As soon as he was launched, Lee Brown seemed up Shane Neal Brown, and located a reserving photograph that seemed nothing like him.
“I couldn’t imagine it. I used to be in disbelief, shocked, angered, upset, damage,” he instructed CNN.
“Had any of the LVMPD police or corrections officers carried out any due diligence, comparable to evaluating his reserving photograph in opposition to the prevailing mug shot belonging to the older, white ‘Shane Brown’ named within the warrant, evaluating his fingerprints, beginning date, ID No., or bodily description, they might have simply decided that Shane Lee Brown has been misidentified as the topic of the warrant,” the lawsuit states.
When requested why Lee Brown, as soon as arrested, was charged with the crimes of Neal Brown, Henderson police stated, “the circumstances will likely be additional addressed within the Metropolis Lawyer’s response to the court docket.”
The legal professional now representing Lee Brown within the go well with, E. Brent Bryson, stated the police failed his consumer when they didn't additional examine his declare of mistaken identification.
“It’s their obligation to know, and in the event that they hear it 100 instances, so be it. It doesn’t matter in the event that they hear it on a regular basis. They should do their investigation, their due diligence and act appropriately,” Bryson instructed CNN.
“The legislation says (this) rises to a degree of deliberate indifference and that’s what occurred right here. They only didn’t care. They only didn’t do something.”
Christopher Peterson, a former public defender who briefly represented Neal Brown prior to now and now works for the Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, stated all the system failed Lee Brown on a number of ranges.
“You've the arresting warrant that’s claiming that this felony warrant applies to Shane Lee Brown, when in reality that’s not correct. In order that’s the primary failing,” Peterson stated.
Then, Peterson stated, Lee Brown went to reserving at Henderson Detention Heart.
“You've a data division at each facility that’s double-checking and ensuring the data line up,” He stated. “These individuals would have doubtlessly had entry to paperwork to find out whether or not this the correct man.”
Whereas at Henderson, “anytime he would have stated one thing, anybody, his officers, may have thrown a flag up and stated, ‘Hey, we now have the mistaken individual,'” Peterson stated.
Then there have been the transporting officers who took Lee Brown to the Clark County Detention Heart. “Presumably, they might have had some paperwork that might have instructed them whether or not or not that they had the correct man for the warrant, to ensure they bring about the correct individual over.”
As soon as at Clark County, Lee Brown was booked once more, and once more the mistaken identification was not flagged. “Then you might have the officers there supervising over the Clark County Detention Heart,” Peterson stated, and people officers additionally didn't test to see whether or not Lee Brown’s claims of mistaken identification have been true.
Then, come the day of the listening to, Lee Brown isn’t delivered to court docket. “That that could be a clear pink flag. There’s an issue when your description is to date off, you possibly can’t determine who to deliver to the courtroom. That’s a critical difficulty. And but by some means it’s on the general public defender to speak to the choose and say, Choose, they've the mistaken individual. It ought to by no means have gotten to that time.”
The-CNN-Wire
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