An Arizona man has sued American Airlines for misidentifying him as a suspect in a robbery at Texas Airport, leading to a gruesome 17-day stay in a New Mexico jail where he said he was forced to undress.
Michael Lowe was flying from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Reno, Nevada, on May 12, 2020, with a stopover at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where someone stole a tax-free store, Star-Telegram reported.
Surveillance cameras caught the suspect boarding the Lowe’s flight and American Airlines reported the theft to airport police, who ordered the company to smooth out the passenger’s video and manifesto, according to the newspaper.
But the carrier “deviated from its established procedures” and sent police only the details of one passenger: Lowe’s, according to a lawsuit filed by a Grand Canyon tour guide lawyer.
That day, Lowe had 2-inch-long gray hair and was wearing a mask, while surveillance footage shows a man with a buzzing cut and no mask, according to the lawsuit.
He said the police affidavit “described the suspect as a tall, thin man, white or Hispanic with a military-style short haircut, black polo shirt and blue jeans,” CBS News reported.
Surveillance cameras caught the suspect boarding Michael Lowe’s flight, and American Airlines reported the theft to airport police. Tarrant County Court Archive
Despite major differences in appearances, the airline identified Lowe as the suspect, prompting police to issue two arrest warrants against Lowe: one for theft and one for felony.
As a result of the confusion, according to the lawsuit, Lowe was arrested more than a year later while on vacation in New Mexico on July 4, 2021, when someone called Tucumcari police about an unrelated incident that do not involve him.
When police arrived, they took everyone’s information and realized that Lowe had two pending orders from Tarrant County, so they arrested him.
But no one told the bewildered man what crimes he was accused of committing when he was taken to jail while insisting they had the wrong man, according to Star-Telegram.
American Airlines is accused of negligence in misidentifying Lowe.AP / Marta Lavandier
“Finding composure in his knowledge was a mistake, Mr. Lowe told his friends, who only visited New Mexico and were not locals, don’t worry, everything would be clarified quickly. He was wrong,” he said. the demand.
“Their protests were not only falling on deaf ears, but they seemed to antagonize the jailers,” he said.
Lowe said he was ordered to undress, forced to crouch and cough while being searched for contraband before being placed in a general population quarantine pod with violent offenders in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The facility’s contempt for the health, safety and well-being of its inmates was immediately apparent” because no one was wearing masks, the lawsuit said, according to Star-Telegram.
Lowe stated in the lawsuit that he slept on the concrete floor while in a “constant state of fear of confrontation, physical abuse or sexual victimization.”
He said he saw a young prisoner hit him in the face, with his blood stained on the wall for several days.
“Having to sit quietly and not help another human being, especially someone vulnerable as the youngest inmate was unbearable for Mr. Lowe,” according to the lawsuit.
After a week behind bars, Lowe said, he had not yet received information about why he was locked up.
A judge told him his only options were to renounce extradition, in which New Mexico would transfer him to the Texas authorities, or wait for Texas officials to pick him up.
A confused Lowe reportedly waived extradition based on the court’s suggestion, still uninformed of the alleged crimes.
The robbery was reported at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on May 12, 2020. Bloomberg via Getty Images
After 17 days in the slammer, he was finally released and walked several miles to a McDonald’s, where he tried to wash himself in the bathroom before being kicked out by employees, the lawsuit says.
He then made a bus trip to Flagstaff, a 12-hour journey that turned into a two-day marathon after a mechanical breakdown.
“Crossing the threshold of his house, Mr. Lowe allowed himself to cry until he could no longer stand it,” the lawsuit states.
He later learned from a DFW airport police detective what charges he had faced, but was unable to find out why he had been misidentified.
To make matters worse, the detective also informed Lowe that another arrest warrant would be issued because he had been lost in a court appearance.
“I’ve never heard of this pattern of events in my life or career,” Lowe’s lawyer Scott Palmer told Star-Telegram. “If it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone.”
After Palmer asked DFW Airport police to compare his client’s images with those of the real suspect, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office finally dismissed the charges.
But the unlawful arrest has left Lowe traumatized, shaken his “identity halfway and left behind his worldview,” according to the lawsuit.
“Mr. Lowe’s naked search, particularly the most degrading aspects, such as exposing her anus, seeing the young inmate punched repeatedly in the face, blood on the floor and on the wall, and the sounds of the inmate trying to care for the whole game. in his head without warning and evoking the corresponding feelings of shame, fear, anger and helplessness he felt the moment he experienced them, “he says.
American Airlines is accused of negligence in misidentifying Lowe.
“So blame American (Airlines). Without American doing what they did, (the detective) would never have issued an order,” Palmer told the newspaper.
“It all starts with the revelation of his name and just his name,” he added.
In a statement to The Post, airline spokesman Rob Himler said: “As required by law, American cooperates and responds to court orders to obtain information related to possible criminal activity, and this is what we in this case, when we were presented with a search warrant. “