53 days jail for having the same first name

[draco664]

Teresa Gilbert threw boiling water over her boyfriend's back, leaving him burned and scared.

The same day, Teresa Culpepper called in that her pickup had been stolen.

Culpepper gets arrested for the assault.

Culpepper is three inches shorter, six-years younger, doesn't have a gold tooth, and lives at a completely different address a mile away.

The assault victim kept telling the prosecutors that they had the wrong woman, since, you know, his attacker is still free.

But hey, same first name. Close enough.

After almost fifty days in jail, she was finally brought before a judge. The victim finally got someone with a braincell to listen. Judge dismisses the felony charge and apologises to Culpepper, saying that he'll get her out today.

Only, he forgets to dismiss the misdemeanor charge. Jail-folk won't release her with those charges still pending.

Culpepper finally gets out a week later (after 53 days) to find that she's been evicted from her apartment, all her stuff has been stolen, and her pickup has been sold for scrap to cover the towing charges. And the icing on the cake? She has to pay back $1000 in disability payments, because you can't get disability if you're in jail - and it doesn't matter if you are there incorrectly.

Link

[Greenday]

Pretty sure she could sue for having her human rights violated (right to a speedy trial).

[draco664]

Pretty sure she could sue for having her human rights violated (right to a speedy trial).

Culpepper's ability to sue does not change the fact that the victim was in considerable danger from having the original attacker at large for eleven weeks.

[HYHYBT]

Never mind; I've read it more carefully now.

[Greenday]

Culpepper's ability to sue does not change the fact that the victim was in considerable danger from having the original attacker at large for eleven weeks.

Well, there's two victims in this story. The main one I was thinking of was the one who was stuck in jail for so freaking long without a hearing.

This sounds like one of those cases where the cops wanted to solve the case as fast as possible just to say they solved a case fast regardless of whether they got it right.

[Duelist925]

Oh wow. That...that is a level of gross stupidity I haven't seen in...ok, actually I see it far too often nowadays. But, seriously--the shittiest lawyer in existence could spin this into a hefty, hefty damn lawsuit for culpepper. And I severely hope the real culprit is now behind bars...or is there ANOTHER Teresa now getting screwed over?

[mikoyan29]

I hope she sues the bejesus out of them. The way I look at it they are responsible for her getting evicted, her truck stolen and a few other things.

[HYHYBT]

Ah, but they were (almost) safe from her suing them, because she had so little to begin with. The truck wasn't worth much if it was sold for scrap, she's on disability, and the landlord, once it was clear what had happened, let her stay until she found a new place. Chances are her belongings didn't have all that much monetary value either. So no money to pay a lawyer, actual damages less than one would charge, and punitive damages are a crapshoot.

Her main chance at suing or otherwise getting restitution would be getting enough publicity.

[smileyeagle1021]

Her main chance at suing or otherwise getting restitution would be getting enough publicity.

Or threaten making it more public than it already is... I could see elected people forking over money to get her to shut up about how broken their legal system is during an election year.

[Caractacus_Potts]

Wow! Back in the 80's I moved to LA for college. Shortly after arriving I was walking down the street when a police cruiser pulled over, questioned me and asked me for my ID. I was handcuffed and put in the back of the cruiser. I remember being extremely confused over why walking on a public street would be illegal.

After about five or ten minutes the police let me go and told me that their was a warrant out for someone with my same name (first, middle and last and my last name is VERY unusual), same height, same weight and the same hair color. They said they realized I was not the suspect because the other person had brown eyes and I had distinctly blue eyes (B4 colored contacts).

Until this moment I had no idea how much worse it could have been than ten minutes in hand cuffs!