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Old 05-30-2011, 10:48 AM
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ilbegone ilbegone is offline
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Quote:
Vogel said it is the county taxpayer who must pay for these booking mistakes, adding that arresting the wrong people and jailing them also takes up valuable bed space.
Ventura county is going to lose this one. Intake procedure is that finger prints scans and an on the spot mug shot are fed into the national crime computer - there is no excuse whatsoever for what Ventura County sheriffs did to this man - jail him for nine days without verifying that he was indeed the person accused of the crime. Ventura County, Kern County, San Bernardino County, LA County and far more have access to information fed into the national computer, and certainly in less than nine days. I believe any claim to the contrary is posturing.

I also believe the statement that written communication should have been made to a supervisor at the jail is laughable, that it would either not be delivered or ignored if it was.

Quote:
Man fired while wrongfully jailed part of suit against county

Locked up 9 days — and innocent


A case of mistaken identity landed a Port Hueneme man in the Ventura County jail for nine days last year, despite his repeated protests to a number of officers and a judge that they had the wrong man.

Charles Velasquez, 28, was a victim of identity theft by a man who already had been convicted in Ventura County in 2009 for falsely impersonating him and sentenced to prison.

Velasquez was arrested last year on two warrants issued by Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties for the man who had been impersonating him — Arturo Perez Gonzalez, Velasquez's ex-wife's boyfriend. Velasquez said Gonzalez has a rose and dagger tattoo and is missing his front teeth.

"I've got all my teeth," Velasquez said, and he does not have such a tattoo.

But despite his protests to everyone at the Ventura County jail that they had the wrong man, no one double-checked his identity. It wasn't until nine days after his arrest, when two detectives from Los Angeles County came to transport him to the Van Nuys jail for the warrants, that his true identity was realized. Detectives there compared Velasquez's likeness to Gonzalez's booking photo and concluded Ventura County had given them the wrong person.

By the time the mistake was cleared up, Velasquez had lost his job as a forklift driver.

Velasquez is now the lead plaintiff in a federal class action lawsuit filed in December against the county. Velasquez's lawyer, Brian Vogel, said there are as many as 10 plaintiffs whose cases are being reviewed and will be named later. The suit alleges their constitutional rights were violated and they were falsely imprisoned.

Vogel said the Ventura County jail has all the technological tools necessary to verify a person's identity.

"This is not rocket science, and they have the means to figure this out quickly and effectively," Vogel said. "Unfortunately, our jurisdiction chooses not to do so."

He said there was a "culture of indifference to true claims of innocence" in former Sheriff Bob Brooks' administration...




...He protested, saying it wasn't him who was wanted by police, but Gonzalez. Velasquez said Gonzalez, who was no stranger to the criminal justice system, had stolen his identification and impersonated him.

But Velasquez's protests went nowhere. Velasquez said he remained in custody for nine days, including Easter weekend, despite his protests to at least 10 deputies and other people in the jail, as well as a judge.

His lawsuit names as defendants the county, sheriff's department, Brooks and other unnamed county employees, including booking officers, supervisors, managers and jail commanders...



...Assistant Public Defender Howard Asher, however, said it is a long-standing problem in the sheriff's department.

"It's been a problem for years, ever since I've been practicing," said Asher, who has worked in the office for 30 years...



...Velasquez said the judge told him to wait, and if Los Angeles County didn't pick him up in five days, they'd release him.

Velasquez never had a lawyer appointed to him while he was in jail, Vogel said.

And Velasquez said that because of Gonzalez's criminal background, he was put under a 23-hour lockdown. He also was told he'd have to take "anti-psychotic or some sort of medication," which apparently had been given to Gonzalez when he was jailed there. During a "pill call" at the jail, he said, he refused to take the medication, insisting he wasn't Gonzalez.

Velasquez said he talked to a jail doctor and nurse, who finally figured out he wasn't Gonzalez. He said he didn't have to take the medication, but neither the doctor nor the nurse talked with jail supervisors...
full article http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/may/...-and-innocent/
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Last edited by ilbegone; 05-30-2011 at 10:54 AM.
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