Posted on 02/25/2006 5:23:45 AM PST by Oakleaf
DENVER -- A 7NEWS investigation revealed there are hundreds of Coloradans whose records erroneously reflect that they are criminals. Valerie Rodriguez is one of those who was arrested and thrown in jail for a crime she didn't commit.
Rodriguez works for a national financial firm and has no criminal record outside some traffic citations. Yet when she applied for part-time holiday work at the post office, she was turned down because she was told there was a warrant out for her arrest. That began a professional and personal nightmare that has not yet ended for her. "I started crying when I first turned myself in because I was scared," said Rodriguez. "I remember just sitting in jail thinking, 'Oh my God! I can't believe this is happening to me. I've never been arrested before, I've never been in trouble.'"
Rodriguez is working hard to become a licensed securities broker, sometimes even working two jobs. But when she applied for a holiday job, she was stunned with the result of the background check. "I had a warrant issued for my arrest for disturbing the peace and assault," Rodriguez said.
The police report charges that Rodriguez beat another woman outside a Conoco gas station at 35th and Downing Street and then ran away. The victim gave police Rodriguez's name. A 16-year-old student witnessed the attack. "I didn't know what happened. I don't know how my name got involved in this. I was basically looking for answers," Rodriguez said. But when she went to Denver police to ask, she was arrested. "After they put me in handcuffs, they walked me down for booking. From there they fingerprinted me, they took my photo and they placed me in the cell," Rodriguez said.
After posting bond, she spent the next few weeks trying to prepare for a court date when she would face her accuser and the Denver police officer who swore out the general warrant against her. But when she got to court, "There was nobody involved in this case against me there," Rodriguez said.
The police officer in the case, the person she allegedly assaulted and the witness never showed up. "They just dismissed the case," Rodriguez said. But that left her with an arrest on her record and few answers.
According to the Denver police report, Darren Young witnessed the attack for which Rodriguez was arrested. He said the perpetrator was skinny, about 120 pounds and didn't look anything like Rodriguez. Young said he's never even seen Rodriguez before. "Never seen her ... never. Positive, she wasn't there," Young said. "The lady I saw she looked like she lived on the streets and everything. She looked like she was just on drugs and everything. That woman looked nothing like this lady right here."
Young was never called by police to identify Rodriguez nor was he ever subpoenaed to court to testify. 7NEWS' investigation has found Rodriguez's false arrest and ongoing effort to clear her name is hardly unique in Colorado. According the records held by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, more than 750 people have been cleared as "misidentified victims" through a fingerprint check in the past four years. They had been arrested, or the subject of bad warrants, or their record simply reflected a crime they didn't commit. And those are just the people who knew to protest and clear their record.
Last year 7NEWS did a story on a similar victim, Jerome Powell. He was the subject of sloppy police work in Aurora. Despite his spotless record, he was falsely arrested after a traffic stop on a warrant for a felony he didn't commit. "I've lost a couple of thousand of dollars just trying to stay out of jail," Powell said. "I think people should know that people are being falsely arrested. I think the public should know because then they know that there are bad cops out there or they're bad jurisdictions."
7NEWS also did a story on Mercedes Archuleta, whose nursing baby was taken from her as she was arrested and put in jail after her name was mistakenly entered into a felony warrant in Lakewood. Again, it was a result of sloppy police work. The American Civil Liberties Union is representing her in a lawsuit.
"I feel that they're just trying to cover up their mistakes," Archuleta said. "If the police are making these mistakes, then they need to be held accountable for them." "For me, it's just been really hard. Having to deal with this, take time off work from this, having different court dates I had to appear at. It just basically turned my world upside down," Rodriguez said.
Holding them accountable includes finding out which police or sheriff's departments are making the most false arrests in the state or entering the wrong arrest data in the records of innocent people in Colorado.
To find out, 7NEWS asked the CBI for records that would give us that information. So far, the state officials have refused. But the attorney general is now reconsidering 7NEWS' request. As for Rodriguez, Denver police officials admit the case was probably mishandled by the officer. 7NEWS' investigation has caused her case to be turned over to the department's internal affairs for investigation. But that is little consolation to Rodriguez, who has now spent hundreds of dollars trying to clear her name.
Have a question or comment on this story? Or have a story idea or news tip? E-mail The Investigators
what is the motivation behind this? does having an identified culprit have some incentive to local law enforcement versus an unknown suspect?
How does a case come up where no cop shows up, no witnesses or accusers are notified? surely the local LEO's who filed the charges have to know about this, and are not showing up because they know there is no case.
The illegals all gotta quit using the same personal information or this will continue. Be more creative, take a name like Smith.
"Why Are Hundreds Of Coloradans Wrongly Arrested? "
This question demands an answer.
Well, duh!! What in the world did she expect to happen?
There are times and places where legal representation is pretty handy to have. This situation is clearly one of them.
So where are the contingency-fee lawyers? It seems you should be able to win large monetary damages in these cases.
Let's say my name is Rodriguez (a common enough name), I beat someone, and ran away. How would anyone know my first and last name and have enough information to single me out among all the Rodriguez's to fill out a warrant?
(Unless, of course, I said something like, "Hello. My name is Valerie Rodriguez. You killed my father. Prepare to die".)
Valerie, mi amiga, this is the U.S. of A. You were found "not guilty" because your victim and the witness never showed up at your trial -- this does not mean you're innocent of the crime you committed. Deal with it.
OK I ANAL
Arrest is not conviction.
You are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt only in criminal court.
In civil court you may be required to prove your innocence by the preponderance of evidence.
In the court of public opinion, where the MSM and activists and advocates practice, you are damned guilty on their say so alone, with no defense and no recourse. Tagline...
Only some traffic citations?
That alone can get a warrant issued around here.
Must be other areas also. I see it all the time on cops.
"You were found "not guilty" because your victim and the witness never showed up at your trial -- this does not mean you're innocent of the crime you committed. Deal with it.
"
Do you believe the interview of the witness by the paper was a fabrication or that the witness lied to the paper?
But that left her with an arrest on her record and few answers.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Until I settled in Newport News, I didn’t realize that Robert Scott was a common name – until I was pulled over for a “routine check”. I was fortunate in that the officer had the physical description of the suspect they were looking for. He was black and young, I am white and much older. On another occasion it wasn’t checked until I showed up in court. I was with the arresting officer when he kindly checked the computer to show me that he was right. There were several outstanding arrest warrants for “Robert Scott” – but they were all black and lived in the East End – a dozen miles from my neighborhood.
I now routinely check the local “outstanding warrants” page of the local PD website.
Like my mother liked to say, “Where’s there’s smoke there’s fire.” She firmly believed that only criminal lowlifes were ever arrested.
This is not to minimize the outrage or to excuse the police (or whoever was involved in getting the warrants sworn out) for their role. But ...
Law Enforcement is underfunded. Our local taxes go for needless educational bureaucrats and for transfer programs of various kinds. The people in charge of appropriating local funds think of cops as thugs, and thugs is what they pay for. And, to a certain extent, thugs is what they get.
A lot of cops, including all the people I work with, without exception, really do want to serve and, frankly, like the possibility of excitement now and then. But all of us work WAY over the time we're paid to work.
What this means is that procedures critical to effectiveness are ignored, or executed perfunctorily. In particular after action review and analysis are neglected. So problems persist or go undetected.
In my office, if you're doing the paperwork which is legally required, and in any case prudent, after some action, and a prisoner needs to be moved from a courtroom to a holding cell or out to a transport van, you can bet you'll be interrupted to go assist in that. So the paperwork gets less attention (from a gang already characterized by ADHD tendencies) and only cursorily read, since usually the real reason for it is protection from liability -- I want my side of the story on file in case the guy I helped into an ambulance decides later to accuse me of stealing his wallet.
If you under pay people and then make it really hard for them to do a good job, then you won't get a good job done.
And the only way these innocent victims will get some reasonable compensation is if the whole thing can be portrayed not as the inevitable result of liberal policies, which is what it is, but as another example of the White sexist racist anti-gay culture acting like they don't kneel before an image of Hillary every morning when they rise.
Rant off. We now resume your normal programming.
Change your name to Shaka Shabazz Zulu, that will put a kink in the system.
This is not to minimize the outrage or to excuse the police (or whoever was involved in getting the warrants sworn out) for their role. But ...
I voted to fund the troops but that was before I voted against it.
Obviously you knew that 'but' negated what you had just written.
How long ago did the assault occur? The newspaper found the witness and did what, show him a picture of Rodriguez? What kind of picture? How old was the picture?
Let me answer your question this way. I believe the witness when he said he didn't recognize the current photo of Rodriguez. I also believe that doesn't mean squat.
How was the victim able to identify Rodriguez by her first and last name and enough information to fill out a warrant? Don't tell me she just picked her name out of thin air. There is a thing called "filing a false police report" you know.
I await your explanation.
I dunno. Justice maybe?
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