By Andrew Brown
He wasn't the right Jose Alicea
but still spent week in jail
When Jose Alicea left work on
April 15, he thought that he was going to the last meeting of his 12-month
probationary term. He told his boss he would be back shortly.
He was proud of the progress he
made since he pleaded guilty to drug paraphernalia charges in May 2013. Alicea
had found a good place to live, started a full-time job working for Singh Auto
Group, and was spending time with his 3-year-old daughter every week.
But when he arrived at the
Northampton County probation office, he was told that a warrant had been issued
for his arrest in Lehigh County. He was handcuffed and taken to the Northampton
County Prison.
When he asked what he was
charged with, he was told that a protection-from-abuse order had been filed
against him and that he had failed to appear in court when he was summoned.
Alicea, of Bethlehem,
protested. He didn't know anyone who would file a protection-from-abuse order
against him, and he knew that he hadn't done anything wrong.
But the arrest warrant didn't
lie. It had his name, date of birth and place of residence printed on it. He
couldn't understand what was happening.
"As soon as I had my life
set up, boom, something like this happened," Alicea said, recounting that
day.
As Alicea, 43, sat in jail for
a week waiting for his bail hearing, he was racked with worry. He couldn't
sleep. The few phone calls he was given were wasted; his former girlfriend, the
mother of his child, wouldn't speak with him, believing that another woman had
filed a protection-from-abuse order against him.
He worried that he wouldn't be
allowed to see his daughter anymore. He was concerned that he would lose his
job and apartment. But the worst part was the gnawing anxiety of not knowing
how his name ended up on the warrant.
"Mentally, I was stressed
out because I had no clue why," Alicea said.
When Alicea was transferred to
Lehigh County for his scheduled court date, he still had no answers, but his
bail was set at $2,000 and his mother and aunt gathered the $200 needed for his
release.
Alicea wasted no time.
He immediately began calling
the probation officers in Northampton and Lehigh County. But after those calls
provided no information, he went to the Lehigh County Court's Clerk of Judicial
Records to request the protection from abuse order that sent him to prison.
When the clerk handed him the
order, Alicea was in disbelief. The protection order was proof that Jose Alicea
had not violated his probation — at least not this Jose Alicea.
The name on the order matched
Alicea's, but the date of birth, Social Security number, residential address
and physical identifiers didn't match his own, according to the documents
obtained by Alicea.
Alicea said he couldn't believe
that a clerical error could put him in prison, and more importantly, that
nobody else had realized the mistake.
"If I wouldn't have made
bail, I never would have been able to resolve this," Alicea said.
While Alicea's case is
troubling, it is far from uncommon. Wrongful arrests and convictions occur
throughout the United States — often the result of clerical errors.
In August, the Clay County
Sheriff's Office in Florida settled a lawsuit for $67,000 with a woman who was
wrongfully arrested twice, according to the news website WKRG.com.
Ashley Nicole Chiasseon of
Louisiana was extradited and spent four weeks in jail on charges of grand theft
and writing bad checks. The woman authorities sought was named Ashley Odessa
Chiasseon, according to the website. Four deputies were suspended without pay
for the mistake.
In May, WFAA.com reported that
the Dallas Police Department's Internal Affairs Division had investigated six
cases of wrongful arrest in the year preceding the news article, including that
of Shantel Johnson, who was picked up on a domestic violence case. The woman
police sought had a similar name but was 20 years younger.
In many wrongful arrest cases,
like Alicea's, the people who are wrongly accused often have prior criminal
records that open them up to mistakes by law enforcement. In 1993, Alicea
pleaded guilty to drug charges in addition to his 2013 arrest.
"Having any prior criminal
record — essentially being known to law enforcement — is a factor that is
linked to wrongful conviction," said Jon Gould, an American University
criminal justice professor.
In 2013, Gould and his
colleagues at American University published research funded by the National
Institute of Justice that identified several factors associated with wrongful
convictions, including the age of the defendant, wrongful eyewitness
identification and an individual's criminal history.
"Knowing nothing else
about the case," Gould said of Alicea's arrest, "the thing that jumps
out at me is that this is someone who has a prior criminal record."
From his experience, Gould said
he believes that someone eventually would have recognized the mistake during
Alicea's court proceedings. But Alicea was able to do that for himself, acting
as his own defense attorney, Gould said.
"In terms of what the
lessons are for law enforcement and for prosecutors," Gould said,
"it's to sweat the details."
But even when criminal justice
employees realize their mistakes before conviction, the wrongful arrests can
cause serious problems for the accused. And in some cases, records are never
corrected, leaving room for future confusion and mistakes by law enforcement.
When Alicea was released from
jail, he had no money, no apartment and no job — in Alicea's absence, his boss
hired another employee.
"I got out with
nothing," Alicea said, "and all I got was: 'I'm sorry.'"
Alicea said that the Lehigh
County probation office apologized when they realized its mistake.
But for Alicea it was a little
too late.
"They were trying to do
anything possible to make it better for me," Alicea said, "but it's
already done. What can they do?"
According to Lehigh County
District Court Administrator Bill Berndt, the mistake was made when the
probation office received the civil court listing and mistakenly matched
Alicea's name with the man who had the protection-from-abuse order filed
against him. Berndt said he did not know of any similar mistakes made by
probation officers.
"The employee who checked
it was not as diligent as they should have been," Berndt said.
Berndt said the mistake had
been fully investigated, but would not say whether any disciplinary action had
been taken against the staff member that made the mistake.
But Berndt emphasized the fact
that Alicea never would have been arrested if he had shown up at court when he
was summoned. Berndt said that since protection-from-abuse orders are a civil
matter, the only reason Alicea was arrested was because he had failed to appear
in court for the protection-from-abuse order.
"His failure to appear
compounded our mistake," Berndt said.
Alicea said that he never
received a letter summoning him to appear in front of a Lehigh County judge.
But even if he had, Alicea said the court administration is missing the point.
He said if they wouldn't have mixed up his name, he never would have been
summoned to court in the first place.
Since April, Alicea has found
another place to stay. He's back doing detail work at Singh Auto Group again,
but his hours have been limited because he can't find a ride to work everyday.
Alicea said he's upset and
frustrated that his life was disrupted by someone's mistake. He said he would
like to seek some type of compensation for being wrongly accused, handcuffed,
strip-searched and jailed. He has sought consultation from lawyers specializing
in false arrests.
According to lawyers who
specialize civil rights cases, not all wrongful arrest cases can lead to
winnable lawsuits.
"It sounds like they
dropped the ball in this case," Robert Magee, a partner at the law firm of
Worth, Magee & Fischer in Allentown, said after being told details of
Alicea's case.
But Magee, who litigates civil
rights cases, said winnable civil suits focusing on wrongful arrests don't come
along every day. He said it often depends on in what jurisdiction the arrest
occurred and whether the victim can prove that law enforcement officials didn't
operate in a professional manner.
Alicea said the point of
seeking civil action isn't about retribution; it's about principle.
"That's a week out of my
life that I'll never get back," he said. "Some people may not think
it's a lot, but it is for me."
