A California girl spent 13 days in jail after being misidentified as a suspect with the identical title sought in Texas, a federal lawsuit alleges.
Bethany Ok. Farber, a 30-year-old aesthetician from Agoura Hills, is suing town of Los Angeles and the LAPD for arresting her at Los Angeles Worldwide Airport as she waited to board a flight to Mexico final April.
Farber was initially detained by Transportation Safety Administration brokers, who escorted her to a non-public room, the place she requested why she was stopped. They advised her she had a warrant out for her arrest in Texas, the lawsuit claims.
Farber mentioned she had by no means been to Texas and undoubtedly wasn’t needed for committing any crimes there, however LAPD and LAX police nonetheless “proceeded to arrest her” in entrance of airport workers with out confirming her identification or checking her driver’s license, in line with the submitting.
“LAPD then held [Farber] in jail for the following 13 days till April 26, 2021,” the lawsuit alleges.
The LAPD mistook Farber for an additional girl additionally named Bethany Farber, who was needed in Texas, though they solely shared the widespread title, her go well with claims.
“Plaintiff is a younger girl with lengthy, blonde hair, whereas the opposite girl is older with brief brown hair,” the submitting reads. “Moreover, the warrant was for a lady within the State of Texas and Plaintiff has by no means been to the State of Texas.”
Farber introduced her go well with at a information convention in entrance of LAPD headquarters Tuesday. She was in the end launched from custody after attorneys confirmed cellphone knowledge indicating she was in California on the day authorities alleged the Texas crime occurred, KTTV reported.
“It might occur to anybody,” Farber mentioned Tuesday of her nightmarish ordeal.
Farber’s legal professional, Rodney Biggs, mentioned he thinks she was considered as a flight danger since she was headed to Mexico, however claims authorities might’ve cleared her with only a few easy checks.
“The very fact nobody checked her center title, her start date,” Biggs mentioned. “No info representing her particular person … they didn’t even verify primary info that Bethany was not the opposite Bethany Farber.”
Farber’s go well with claims she was compelled to share bathroom paper and cleaning soap throughout her 13-day incarceration at Lynwood Ladies’s Jail, the place she was so chilly that she used sizzling meals to heat herself. She additionally witnessed feces being thrown and smeared onto partitions, the lawsuit alleges.
Farber suffered “extreme stress, anxiousness, emotional harm and psychological anguish” because of her unjust arrest. Her 91-year-old grandmother additionally had a “stress-induced stroke” upon studying she was in jail and died shortly after Farber was launched, the lawsuit alleges.
Los Angeles authorities in the end held Farber on the jail for 3 extra days after being knowledgeable by Texas courts that she was certainly the incorrect particular person being sought, in line with her lawsuit.
The LAPD doesn’t touch upon pending litigation, a division spokesman told the Los Angeles Times.
Farber, in the meantime, advised the newspaper she doesn’t need another “law-abiding” residents to undergo what she endured.
“You already know this is the reason we’ve got our [constitutional] amendments in place to guard us,” she mentioned in a press release. “We shouldn’t be fearing regulation enforcement.”
