Posted on 06/05/2014 7:42:23 AM PDT by Altariel
CHESTERTON, IN An innocent man was arrested in an early morning raid and jailed for 10 days because he had the same first and last name as a drug suspect. The ordeal caused him to lose his job, rack up bills, and nearly get evicted from his home.
Steven M. Thompson, a service technician at Arcelor-Mittal Steel, received an early morning visit from the Porter County Drug Task Force (PCDTF) on on May 5th. He was taken from his teenage daughter in handcuffs.
Mr. Thompson had done nothing wrong. He assumed the misunderstanding would be easily cleared up once in police custody. Except it didnt work out that way.
Despite collecting no evidence at Thompsons home, he was charged with two Class B felonies for dealing pills and heroin. Each felony carries a 6-20 year prison sentence.
Accused of being a drug dealer, he was locked up in the Porter County Jail. Except he isnt actually a drug dealer.
Days went by and he was not being released. With such difficulty in correcting the error, he began to think that going to prison might be a real possibility.
Finally, on the 10th day of confinement, he was able to prove his innocence with the help of attorney Bob Harper.
Although Thompsons identity matched matched the signed warrant down to the date of birth and middle initial the data on the warrant had been incorrectly obtained. The intended suspect was Steven P. Thompson, who is three years younger and the same race, the Northwest Indiana Gazette confirmed.
Mr. Thompsons false arrest caused him to rack up bills, face threats of eviction from his home, and lose his job after 6 years of employment.
Porter County Prosecutor Brian Gensel oversees the Porter County Drug Task Force (PCDTF), and dropped charges after it was evident that the wrong man had been arrested.
* * * * *
This case clearly illustrates the point that anyone innocent or guilty can be the target of governments eager efforts to imprison Americans; the police state is not only felt by criminals. Those who turn a blind eye toward overzealous policing fail to recognize how easy it is to be subjected to a false accusation, a wrongful arrest, or a downright corrupt prosecution effort.
Mr. Thompson is lucky in the sense that the ordeal didnt go further than it did. However, he still was fired from his job, lost 10 days of his life, lost his good name, and suffered numerous personal inconveniences. And this represents just one of countless botched arrests and injustices that have been caused by the War on Drugs.
Guilty until proven innocent. I remember as a kid being taught that “innocent until proven guilty” was another reason to be proud of this country, but just like everything else, that is no longer the case.
This line fried me! How about not hiring retards to work in Government? 10 days to figure out they had the wrong guy? Really? What about the retards kicking in the wrong door because they can't read the numbers on the house. Or shooting a dog on the inside of house when answering a burglar alarm. Look in the window, the dog is NOT barking. SO duh! No one is in the house. But by all means lets kick the door down and kill a dog or person who is trying to defend their property.
Rant off.
Not accidental or a consequence of stupidity.
So long as people brush it off as idiocy, the problem won’t be resolved.
Why do they shoot dogs?
They get away with it.
Entering an innocent man’s house?
They get away with it.
Throwing a man in jail without making sure they had the right man?
They get away with it.
Just-us system.
How do we get them to stop? I am at a loss.
Get rid of qualified immunity. Make each and every officer personally liable, for starters.
Other solutions likely also come to mind.
Which means we have to get rid of the lawyers!
Not lawyers - first you need to get rid of STATISTS who wrote and passed these Liberty eroding no-knock and SWAT raid drug search laws.
Then once you’ve run them out and repealed all the old guard statist drug search laws, enact new laws governing searches that make police individually + criminally liable for negligence, and make them fiscally accountable to their employer (ie: Joe Taxpayer) when they cost him millions in their latest lawsuit for killing Spot and causing 1st degree burns to your toddler.
In other words, elect Libertarians, or Extremely Liberty Minded Republicans. Heck, there’s even a few Democrats have had enough of this mess to act on it...
Sounds like he needs to end up owning him a police department of his very own.
Bingo.
This could happen to any of us. When I moved to this area, there was a woman with my exact same name who was a professional bad-check writer.
I received a LOT of unnerving, threatening phone calls from bill collectors, thinking I was her!
Luckily, that’s as far as it went, and I filed something with the state to protect me.
Then, I married and changed my name. Problem solved. Well, in all honesty, that resulted in a whole ‘NOTHER set of problems, LOL! *SMIRK*
Yep, He was very lucky.
Ranks up the ladder of stupid like the GA swat team tossing the flash bang in to a Baby crib and then saying they plan to charge the guy they were looking for with child endangerment.
And they guy wasn’t even there during the raid...
I’ve been denied several jobs because of a NSF check ($52.50) charge that was dropped to a Misdemeanor (traffic ticket) and supposed to be scrubbed from My record.
They doctored the warrant data.
Yep.
Fill-in-the-blank warrant.
Thank you for not having any kids.
If I did they wouldn’t be group thinking morons following every pied piper troll telling them what they want to hear.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.