Mother Wrongfully Arrested after stepping off a cruise ship

[Paul Motter]

Mother Wrongfully Arrested Is Released From Jail - cbs4.com

So much for authorities relying on cruise ship manifests to arrest people sight unseen. A few people who were real criminals have been caught this way, but this case shows maybe they should act quite so fast...

I think the pictures below are reversed, though. I think the one in the orange jumpsuit is the one who was arrested originally.


"The woman on the left -- Paola Londono -- said she was wrongfully arrested and her only crime is sharing the name with the woman on the right who police say is wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant."

[Mike M]

Originally Posted by Paul Motter

Mother Wrongfully Arrested Is Released From Jail - cbs4.com



"The woman on the left -- Paola Londono -- said she was wrongfully arrested and her only crime is sharing the name with the woman on the right who police say is wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant."

Paul,

The pictures are reversed. The woman on the right was wrongfully arrested and the woman on the left is the actual person with the warrant out for their arrest.

Sometimes I really have an issue with the bureaucracy. A simple look at the mug shot tells them that the woman is not the same one. No plastic surgery makes that drastic of a change. Also the height and weight were far different.

I also find it ridiculous that the wrongfully accused woman still has to go to court and "prove" that she isn't the actual accused.

It would be humiliating to have this happen.

Take care,
Mike

[Paul Motter]

The person in the article says it was humiliating - she was handcuffed and given the "perp walk" through the ship.

It also amounts to kidnapping on the part of authorities, although I dont know if police can be charged with that, but certainly a "false arrest."

BTW: I did note in my post that the pictures appear reversed but I guess I didnt say "arrested originally" which is what I meant. I just fixed that.

[Trip]

This is sad,and indeed humiliating...just her luck as well, to have it happen on a holiday weekend, to delay her release

[Aerogirl]

GEE, more reason the goverment should microchip us!

[Paul Motter]

Aerogirl...

Don't laugh, I think many mothers would voluntarily microchip their kids right now if the government volunteered to pay for it.

As long as it didn't have GPS I wouldn't care that much - except, wait a minute, didnt a CA federal court just rule that police can tag your car with a GPS without your permission or even a search warrant?

The game is already over - your microchip is in your assigned physician's doctor's office waiting for you. It comes with a valium drip

I actually belive this will be done, and that people will accept it as a logical safety measure. They can already pinpoint your cellphone any time they want and who ever leaves the house without that? right?

[Paul Motter]

Now ironically - without even looking I will bet you the anti-cruise brigade who write it up every time someone is rightfully arrested due to a cruise ship manifest will also write this up as another "cruise ruse" just because she was WRONGFULLY arrested.

[Dave Beers]

So you have a small child seeing his mother hauled off in chains, all the other humiliation and mental terror of being jailed for days, and in the end they probably won't get a dime even though I feel she deserves it in this case. You'd think they had found a fugitive murderer. Even if she was the actual criminal the charge was prostitution, hardly something to warrant such a response.

Yeah, I don't understand why she has to go to court to prove her identity. They make it sound like "okay, we'll let you out for now but you aren't off the hook yet."

Cretins are all around us.

[Rev22:17]

Dave,

Originally Posted by You

So you have a small child seeing his mother hauled off in chains, all the other humiliation and mental terror of being jailed for days, and in the end they probably won't get a dime even though I feel she deserves it in this case. You'd think they had found a fugitive murderer. Even if she was the actual criminal the charge was prostitution, hardly something to warrant such a response.

Yeah, I don't understand why she has to go to court to prove her identity. They make it sound like "okay, we'll let you out for now but you aren't off the hook yet."

Cretins are all around us.

Actually, the woman who was wrongfully arrested has an excellent case, though she needs to find a good lawyer to bring it. She is potentially entitled to compensation:

>> 1. For the wrongful arrest and associated defamation of character,

>> 2. For the time that she was detained before the matter got sorted out,

>> 3. For all expenses incurred as a result of the wrongful arrest including lawyers' fees, child care expenses, etc.,

>> 4. For the harm caused to her relationship with her child and to any others involved,

>> 5. For lost wages, etc., due to the wrongful detention,

>> 6. For the emotional duress that the situation caused,

>> 7. For court costs and other costs incurred in pursuing a legitimage claim for the above damages, including reasonable legal fees,

And possibly for other damages as well. These damages are not insignificant. Whenever she applies for a job and the employer asks if she has ever been arrested, she can no longer truthfully answer in the negative. An affirmative answer to such a question invariably requires a lot of 'splainin' that is best answered by a court finding of wrongful arrest with a substantial award for damages.

Further, she can file a claim/lawsuit not only against the police departments or other law enforcement agencies that acted improperly in ordering her arrest, but also against the officers and officials involved in each step of the incident who should have recognized the error and ordered or advocated for her release, but failed to do so.

Norm.

[nlb1050]

I do feel for the woman that was wrongfully aressted. My brother had the same thing happen to him once. He was stopped for making an illegal turn, no sign and he did not know the city. When the officer saw his drivers license he of course did a check and the name came back as wanted. So he was taken to the jail, fortunately my brother was in the National Gurad and had just finished duty at Fort Know so his finger printes were on file and he made sure that the police knew this. After checking his prints he was let go as it definitely was not him that was wanted, but it is weird the name was the same and so was the birthdate. He was just so glad it did not take too long to find out they had the wrong guy that he just decided it was not worth trying to do anything about a wrongful arrest. It is not easy to win a case of wrongful arrest and can take along time.

[Paul Motter]

I agree with Rev on this one, the woman was WRONGED. Rev wroye about her being asked if she was ever arrested.

An affirmative answer to such a question invariably requires a lot of 'splainin' that is best answered by a court finding of wrongful arrest with a substantial award for damages.

Yeah, but at the same time when applying for a job you also do not want to appear to be litigious or vindictive to authority, so she may not get the job anyway if she sues for damages.

Her life may have been damaged far more than we expect at this point.

It just goes to show you, once again, our forefathers really did know what they were doing (regarding individual rights) when they wrote our Constitution. You can't avoid mistakes, but this should have every right to completely clear her name, including not having that arrest on her record so she does not have to reply in the affirmative.

[Paul Motter]

Aerogirl, we just microchipped our dog today. I think that if I had kids I would have microchipped them as well.

[Snoozeman]

Wow, she was wronged, but they (Gov't) will claim it was an honest mistake. What are the chances that both would have such an unusual name?

[robh]

This was also on the UK boards today.
Cruiser arrested for prostitution - Cruises.co.uk - SHOWTHREAD

Great way to encourage tourism from Europe

You sometimes wonder about the intelligence level of some of these officials and their attitude to the average person. My real concern is the child could have been placed into a Family Child Care Detention Centre wondering about where is Mum and Dad potentially charged with assistance to the crime.

What happened to Interpol and computers and mug shots, like you put on all that weight and height?

My bigger question is so much for Homeland Security checking passengers prior to boarding as why provide all our information weeks ahead of time. Makes you wonder.

I do not agree with micro chipping people, also I turn off my GPS phone locater.

My bigger issue is I thought we were considered innocent, to be treated as citizens.

[blueliner]

This woman can get the arrest expunged from her record by a Judge, so her reputation and clean record will once again be whole. She won't have to answer yes about being arrested on any job applications.

[SUSAN CURTIS]

And a all expense paid cruise since her cruise was forever ruined by this one. And to make sure this new cruise will be so wonderful as to erase all those bad memories, her cruise will include a suite, dinner for two at the supper club. $5000.00 credit on her said and sign card and unlimited spa usuage.

[Paul Motter]

Susan...

I think the free cruise will have to be the result of the settlement by her lawyer with the police for false arrest - it wasn't the cruise line's fault this happened.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the woman doesn't want to see a cruise ship for awhile .

[John Jacobs]

Totally agree with you Dave. Even if one accepts that mistakes of this nature will happen from time to time. Why was it considered necessary to humiliate this person by walking her handcuffed through public areas?. Why on earth did it take 36 hours to sort out?. (36 minutes should have been more than enough)
Human Rights Lawyers on this side of the pond would have a field-day with this one

[monkeythyme]

Originally Posted by John Jacobs

Totally agree with you Dave. Even if one accepts that mistakes of this nature will happen from time to time. Why was it considered necessary to humiliate this person by walking her handcuffed through public areas?. Why on earth did it take 36 hours to sort out?. (36 minutes should have been more than enough)
Human Rights Lawyers on this side of the pond would have a field-day with this one

The woman they mistook her for was wanted for prostitution, not serial murder, assault, or armed robbery. One would think they could have put away their Steven Segal wannabe cards for just this one arrest.

[Lakers Fan]

I wonder if this happens more often and just does not make the press ?