Jennifer Heath Field shivered on a mat on the ground, her again pressed towards one other inmate’s again, as they desperately tried to remain heat. The air-con blew a frigid breeze via the Broward County Jail in south Florida. Guards walked by carrying coats and beanies.
It was Christmas Eve. Her son, a Marine, was leaving on Dec. 27 to spend three years stationed in Okanawa, Japan.
And the police had arrested the unsuitable “Jennifer.”
Jennifer Heath Field was arrested on Dec. 24, 2022, as a result of she shared two thirds of a reputation with one other lady who was wished for little one endangerment. (Fox Information Digital/Broward Sheriff’s Workplace through Institute for Justice)
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“The truth that it was simply really easy to have arrested me simply makes you query what number of extra folks [are] on the market like this,” Field advised Fox Information Digital, sitting in her Texas dwelling two years after she was arrested and jailed for 3 nights on another person’s warrant.
Field is now suing the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace, alleging deputies violated her Fourth Modification rights towards unreasonable search and seizure once they did not do “primary due diligence to substantiate whether or not the individual they deliberate to arrest was really topic to the arrest warrant.”
‘I feel y’all have the unsuitable individual.’
Field and her husband rushed to the entrance of the road, desperate to get off the cruise ship on Christmas Eve 2022. That they had simply spent six days at sea with Field’s brother, celebrating his second restoration from most cancers. Now, Field wished to get dwelling to rejoice Christmas along with her youngsters, the final time for not less than three years the household would all be collectively earlier than her son left for Okinawa.
However when she scanned her badge to disembark, employees mentioned safety wanted to satisfy with Field. Quickly, police and Customs and Border Safety surrounded Field and her husband.
“They requested if I used to be Jennifer Heath,” she recalled. Field stored Heath as her center title after marrying her husband.
She repeatedly requested the legislation enforcement officers standing round her what was occurring. Ultimately, they mentioned they’d a warrant for her from Harris County, Texas.
“It is for endangering a baby,” a deputy mentioned.
Field’s eyes went huge. Her husband mentioned, “I feel y’all have the unsuitable individual.”
Police had a warrant for “Jennifer Delcarmen Heath,” who was 23 years youthful and practically half a foot shorter than the “Jennifer” who had simply gotten off a cruise ship.
Physique digital camera and patrol automobile video reveals Jennifer Field’s arrest on Christmas Eve 2022. (Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace through Institute for Justice)
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In line with court docket filings from July 2022, Jennifer Delcarmen Heath was accused of endangering her kids, ages 1 and three.Â
Jennifer Heath Field, who was 48 years previous on the time, had no minor kids. The suspect on the warrant was youthful than considered one of her daughters.
“Endangering a baby? What little one would I endanger?” Field requested, surprised.
Officers handcuffed her and put her in a sheriff’s workplace SUV, the place inside video reveals Field persevering with to insist there have to be some mistake as she was transported to the Broward County Jail.
The reserving officer mentioned she did not see any warrants within the system for Field when she scanned her driver’s license, however Deputy Peter Peraza insisted that they e book her anyway, based on the lawsuit filed towards the sheriff’s workplace, Peraza and different deputies and corrections employees.
Field’s attorneys on the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties legislation agency, mentioned Broward County deputies missed not less than 10 important discrepancies between Field and the topic of the warrant, together with the huge age and peak disparities, totally different Social Safety and FBI numbers and contrasting eye, hair and pores and skin colours. The one data that implicated Field was a duplicate of her DMV photograph that had been hooked up to the warrant.
Field felt humiliated and terrified as she was strip searched, given a jail uniform and positioned in a chilly, soiled cell, the place she mentioned she witnessed steady screaming and violence within the adjoining males’s space.
She awakened Christmas morning after a stressed evening shivering on the ground subsequent to a stranger and was denied bond as a result of the opposite “Jennifer” had an extradition warrant, based on the lawsuit. Harris County had as much as 30 days to return get her, an officer allegedly advised Field.
At dwelling, each Field’s brother and her husband had been preventing layers of paperwork. Officers with Harris County mentioned they wanted BSO to ship over the warrant and Field’s fingerprints for comparability, however BSO refused, based on the go well with.
Jennifer Field has three kids, who ranged in age from 19 to 30 on the time of her arrest. The suspect on the kid endangerment warrant was 25 years previous, Hispanic and 5 inches shorter than Field. (Courtesy Jennifer Field)
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Lastly, the night of Dec. 26, Field was in a position to file a grievance, asking BSO to check her fingerprints to these of the suspect.
Field walked out of jail round 10 a.m. on Dec. 27. Her son was boarding his flight.
“They took from me issues that I’ll by no means get again,” Field mentioned. “I will by no means get that point again with my youngsters. I will by no means get to have that chance to have these reminiscences.”
She recalled speaking to the officer who escorted her out of the detention heart about all of the issues she had missed out on over the vacations. His demeanor began “fully boastful,” she mentioned, however softened when she advised him she did not get to see her son earlier than he left for the Marine Corps.
“‘Issues occur,'” Field remembered the officer saying.
That was the closest she ever obtained to an apology.
‘No worker misconduct discovered’
The Broward Sheriff’s Workplace advised Fox Information Digital in an announcement that it “sympathizes with the tough state of affairs Ms. Jennifer Heath Field was in,” however blamed Harris County for the mishap.
“Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Workplace, Customs and Border Patrol wouldn’t have flagged Ms. Field, BSO wouldn’t have been notified, and she or he wouldn’t have been arrested,” a spokesperson wrote.
The assertion added that the “actions of the BSO deputy concerned in arresting Ms. Field had been reviewed by the Broward Sheriff’s Workplace Inner Affairs Division, and no worker misconduct was discovered.”
Institute for Justice lawyer Jared McClain mentioned that whereas Harris County and CBP additionally made errors within the case, it “doesn’t excuse the habits of Officer Peraza and the Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace.”
“That they had an obligation to make sure that the individual they had been arresting was really the topic of the warrant–especially within the face of Jennifer’s repeated and credible insistence that they’d the unsuitable individual.”
CBP flagged Field’s title to BSO earlier than she left for the cruise, based on her legal professionals, giving deputies ample time to substantiate her identification “earlier than they determined to arrest the unsuitable Jennifer.”
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Jennifer Heath Field is considered one of not less than 160 folks named “Jennifer Heath” residing in Texas, based on her lawsuit. (Fox Information Digital)
BSO made related errors in not less than two different mistaken identification arrests, together with one during which a person spent 5 days in jail earlier than police ran his fingerprints and confirmed he was the unsuitable individual, based on the go well with.
“Regardless of this historical past of jailing harmless individuals who share a reputation with somebody with an excellent warrant, Broward County did not adequately prepare its officers or implement new insurance policies, practices, or customs guaranteeing that BSO employees confirm the identities of arrestees,” the go well with alleges.
BSO didn’t reply Fox’s query about whether or not the division had made any coverage modifications after Field’s arrest.
The go well with seeks an admission that the defendants violated Field’s constitutional rights, in addition to damages.
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As Field ready to brighten her Christmas tree this 12 months, she advised Fox Information Digital she desires to see extra checks and balances put in place so nobody else endures what she went via.
“I wish to maintain these folks accountable,” she mentioned. “You are messing with folks’s lives. It isn’t simply [fun and games] or no matter and, ‘I’m gonna put somebody behind bars, I am gonna verify off the field, and I am gonna go dwelling to my household.’ You harm so many individuals on this state of affairs apart from simply myself.”
Elizabeth Heckman contributed to the accompanying video.
