An Arizona man was jailed for 17 days after American Airlines mistakenly identified him as a suspect who broke into a duty-free shop at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and boarded an American flight to Reno, Nevada.
Michael Lowe claims in the suit that he lived in a constant state of fear while he was at the Quay County detention center in New Mexico, where he saw inmates punch each other and the wall was stained with blood.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Tarrant County District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, involves the arrest and imprisonment of an innocent man because of American Airline's negligent behavior. A spokesman for American Airlines said in an email that they were reviewing the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe was robbed at the Dallas Fort Worth airport in May of 2020 and boarded a flight to Reno. The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe boarded the same flight to visit a friend.
In order to identify the culprit, the airport police obtained a search warrant and ordered American to produce any and all recorded travel data for all individuals on the flight. The complaint states that American gave the police information about Mr. Lowe.
Scott H. Palmer is the lawyer for Mr. Lowe. When the true suspect was a passenger on that flight, how could they pick the wrong person?
The suspect had a short military-style haircut, a black polo shirt and blue jeans, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe sent a selfies to his girlfriend from the plane.
According to the lawsuit, the airport police obtained two arrest warrants for Mr. Lowe on June 30, 2020, charging him with felonies and misdemeanors.
The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe was at a party in Tucumcari, N.M., when the police asked for his identification. They discovered the outstanding warrants from Tarrant County when they checked Mr. Lowe's ID.
Mr. Lowe didn't know where Tarrant County was. The lawsuit states that he told his friends not to worry. He wasn't right.
The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe appeared to be antagonizing the jailers when he protested that the police had arrested the wrong person.
The lawsuit states that he was ordered to strip naked and was searched before being placed in the jail. The lawsuit states that he slept on a concrete floor and a metal bunk.
A request for comment was not responded to on Tuesday.
Mr. Lowe was taken before a judge on his eighth day in jail. He wasparalyzed by fear and indecision after he was shown a Tarrant County warrant but without a lawyer to explain the process to him. He didn't want to be extradited to Texas.
A guard told him he was going to be released after 17 days in jail. The lawsuit states that Mr. Lowe walked to a Mcdonald's and immediately began crying when he got home at 4 a.m.
He called Tarrant County officials to investigate what had happened to him. A warrant was issued for his arrest because he failed to show up for court, according to the lawsuit.
The detective obtained Mr. Lowe's booking photo from Quay County and compared it to the airport photos of the suspect.
The lawsuit states that American Airlines had the wrong person and that Mr. Lowe wasn't responsible for the break-in.
Mr. Lowe's charges were dropped in September. A spokeswoman for the airport wouldn't say anything about the lawsuit. There were no pending cases against Mr. Lowe.
The airline, not the police, was responsible for Mr. Lowe's case because of the mistake made by American.
He said that the police cannot be sued for violating constitutional rights that were not the result of intentional acts and that the airport police did not appear to have targeted Mr. Lowe.
The dominoes fell after the airline started. I have never seen something like that before.
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