http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/15/colorado.mistaken.identity.arrest/index.html?hpt=Sbin

This story just broke this morning, but the actual event happened over two years ago.

"(CNN) -- Three police cars pulled into Christina FourHorn's front yard one afternoon just before she was supposed to pick up her daughter at school. The officers had a warrant for her arrest.

"What do you mean robbery?" FourHorn remembers asking the officers. Her only brushes with the law had been a few speeding tickets.

She was locked up in a Colorado jail. They took her clothes and other belongings and handed her an oversize black-and-white striped uniform. She protested for five days, telling jailers the arrest was a mistake. Finally, her husband borrowed enough money to bail her out.

"They wouldn't tell me the details," she said.

Later, it became clear that FourHorn was right, that Denver police had arrested the wrong woman. Police were searching for Christin Fourhorn, who lived in Oklahoma.

Their names were similar, and Christina FourHorn, a mother with no criminal record living in Sterling, Colorado, had been caught in the mix-up.

FourHorn went public about her case more than two years ago, filing a lawsuit that alleged the arrest violated her constitutional rights. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from arrest without probable cause."


Click the link and read on for more. This is simply outrageous that this sort of thing is going on in this country. We are becoming a police state, and the cops have all the power. The cops arrest the wrong person, and after a lengthy letigious fight in court, they say "whoops, our bad."??? They can come into your home and snatch you away for whatever reason or for no reason. They find clever ways of getting around warrants, the 4th Ammendment, and Miranda rights. I would guess that citizens are getting pretty damned fed up with sort of wreckless irresponsible and unethical behavior by the police.

Not three and not five FourHorns.........

unfortunately,, cops will make mistakes,, but even MORE unfortunate is so many believe that they don't to the point that they won't LISTEN to any theories but the ones they already decide upon.

Thanks for sharing this.

You're welcome. So the question is: What constitutes a false arrest? When a "suspect" is released? Or when a "suspect" is accused, jailed, bonded, and then found not guilty by a jury? And then it's still not over, the person has to fight to get their life back after a lengthy expungment proceeding.

Hummm even I would have to admit that ...

Christina Four-Horn & Christin Fourhorn

is in fact a pretty honest mistake hell I was looking for the hell of it and found 2 people within my area that have the same first name and last name as I do and spells Kristi the same way only difference is our middle name. Heck even the Police are not perfect.

Yeppiers I'm taking up for their actions for the arrest now as far as looking into it further that they should have once she was there, but.........then they have heard that so often that I'm innocent when they are not they tend to turn a deaf ear towards them....

How about they make sure they have all of the evidence they need to make a proper arrest. Seems to me they rushed to judgement, and acted hastily, as so many of them do. A first and last name, that's all they had in this case, pretty pathetic, and by NO MEANS an honest mistake. This is sloppy, lazy, jumpy police-work.

I guess if your name is "John Smith," you might want to consider changing it to some complicated Czechoslovakian name, in order to avoid any "confusion" by local law enforcememt.

How do you know they rushed to judgement?

Maybe with what they had, they thought they had all the evidence.

If they were going off a lead and the person they were looking for has evaided the police before and has not been caught yet what are the police supposed to do wait till they know what color socks her mother was wearing when she was born. No they acted.

You say this story is 2 years old. Is that how long it took to find the real person they were loking for? So should they have waited that long? I wonder what the percentage of wrongfull arrestes and good arrestes are.

The police are trying to do there job and no one is perfect.

I think the police do a good job, and most of the people I have run into that hate police for things like this have been in troule with the law and blame it on the police for catching them breaking the law.

Yes it would be annoying being arrested for something I didn't do. But they did get it right in the case you posted and released her and didn't convict her of anything.

As similar as the names are... this should have been an easy catch. They had to have taken fingerprints. Those wouldn't have matched the suspect, and she should have been set loose then and there.
Furthermore, her identification should not have matched the suspect. The initial arrest might have been valid, but any time spent in jail, and not just at the local police station for identification, was a violation of her rights.
Sorry to say it, but this doesn't classify as a mistake. This classifies as negligence on the part of the police. A close or same name should in no way cause you to be locked up for 5 days.

So what are the police to do?
Everytime they arrest someone and that person says it wasnt me I didn't do it just let them go?

I think it would be good procedural policy, regardless of what the suspect says, to verify fingerprints before incarceration(they take them anyway,,right?).

How do you know they didn't do that?
In the case of the the woman in the OP what if the person who had commited the crime didn't have her fingerprints on file?

They would verify photo-id as I stated above. She would have a picture and/or description associated with her. This would have cast some doubt. Even if not, there is reasonable doubt for jail... so having her remain in the county would be good enough (and yes, she probably would have cooperated if asked I'm betting).

Again your assuming they have a positive photo of the person who commited the crime.
I would like to see the police report of the incident and not just the story of the woman arrested wrongly, and the opinion of the person wrighting the article.

Well, if they have only a name, and it doesn't exactly match, and it is not a know alias... they have nada. That's not reasonable for arresting someone.
Also, if they knew the name, it is VERY likely they had more information. However, I can't see arresting someone just because the name is close to the name of someone who commits a crime. That would be like saying I own the packaging company that just so happens to be in town with "my first and my last names, then packaging company" as it's name. It's not reasonable to assume that, although it might make you suspect it slightly. In my case, suspecting it would be wrong. I do not own that company, which does actually exist. Name association is just too weak of a link to arrest someone.
Heck, I'm live in the same town as that company! This was across state lines. It's too weak of a connection.

TJN, here is another excerpt from the article:

"In Christina FourHorn's case, she was about 100 pounds heavier then the suspect, Christin Fourhorn. Her middle name is Ann, while the suspect's middle name is Blue. She was also seven years older and didn't have a tattoo on her left arm, which the suspect did."

And this event happened over two years ago, it did not take the police two years to conduct the investigation. If an officer directly observes a crime being committed, it's a little more justifiable for an arrest, than acting on a warrant and/or report of a suspect, an accusation. From what I've read on this article, the police had very little to act on, and they made a collosal error. And the "locked up for five days" part, how ridiculous is that? She should have been allowed to post bail and be released the same day, but no, our courts won't allow that. God help you if you are ever arrested on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, and that Monday is not a holiday. You will languish for a awhile until the court decides it is ready to hear your plea.

Ok where did the crime take place?
Yes they cought the woman who did it in Oklahoma but who's to say she didn't move there after the crime?
There is not enough information in tha article to bash the police for making a wrong arrest.
You don't know what information the police had when making the arrest. So how can you rush to judgement saying the police were wrong? Doesn't that make you just as wrong as the police were?

Very sloppy work on the part of that police force....
They should have the arresting officer's badge, a public apology to the woman and her family as well as a nice little check to TRY to make up for such a heinous and hasty arrest.

see the thing is the cops will still have their jobs and get a slap on the wrist, mean time in five days this lady could of lost her job,the stress of being in jail knowing your innocent,having to eat the food in there i mean all she probably got was an ooops from them.fu(kin with someones freedom is serious but to them its a ooops?