A man was wrongfully arrested, accused of taking part in an assault, as a result of someone five years prior taking a picture with him and posting the picture on the internet site Facebook. This story illustrates how people can be wrongfully arrested. San Marcos police's botched investigation led to a man's wrongful arrest | KVUE , KVUE The man's name was Austin Colson. He was arrested on October 4, 2021 (in Willis, Texas, where he lived). As he entered an intersection, a sheriff's deputy stopped him for failing to make a complete stop. The deputy ran his name in the computer database, which is common procedure. A second deputy arrived on the scene. He was informed there was a warrant for his arrest for "assault with bodily injury", and that the warrant came from Hays County. Colson did not even know where Hays County was. A man in San Marcos was the victim of an assault by multiple men, which took place in June 2021 outside a bar. That man was able to identify one of the assailants, and police later arrested and charged that man with assault. He happened to be from Colson's home town. Colson said he had not seen that guy in five years. The assault victim, in an attempt to try to identify the other attackers in the group, had looked through that man's Facebook page, and saw a picture of Colson. The victim (mistakenly) thought that Colson looked like one of the other men in the group who had attacked him. The victim informed San Marcos police, who were able to figure out that the man in the picture was Austin Colson. To be able to obtain the arrest warrant, the lead police investigator claimed that Colson was a student at Texas State University. This would have placed Colson near the crime. But in reality, Colson was a student at Sam Houston State, 170 miles away. The police investigator either made an error, or more likely lied about that fact to be able to get the warrant. Colson spent 16 hours in jail. This was after a long day of classes, and after finally getting off his night job as a pizza delivery driver. He was arrested at around 10:30 in the evening. After he was released, the police did not even inform him of the circumstances that had led to his arrest. He was only able to find that out months later, after more than a dozen phone calls and the help of a lawyer. San Marcos police's botched investigation led to a man's wrongful arrest, Tony Plohetski, KVUE News (ABC), September 8, 2023 "The arrest of Austin Colson stemmed from a case of mistaken identity"
Happens every day. Fortunately there are many ways to get your name cleared such as cellphone tracking, credit card tracking, etc...
He is trying to sue, but I think he is unlikely to get any money. He was arrested because of witness misidentification. It's unclear exactly why the police detective had him arrested and then released him. I might guess that the suspect was interviewed the next morning after the arrest, provided information about where he worked, which the detective verified and then realized it was unlikely he would have been at the crime scene that was a 3 hour drive away, when the crime involved a group assault by young men that probably involved alcohol. Another reason it might be hard to get any money from a lawsuit might be that perhaps he cannot prove he was not at the crime scene. The fact that he attended a college 3 hours away only makes it unlikely he was at the crime scene. So even if the detective made a mistake and he should not have been arrested, it wasn't a big enough make mistake that he should get money for being arrested. This just goes to show how easy it is to get wrongfully arrested.
agree, cause anytime someone does a web search now on his name, he will come up, this could hurt future employment
