A Black man arrested and sent to jail for six days filed a federal civil rights lawsuit earlier this month after two different Nevada police departments failed to realize they had the wrong man of the wrong race in jail. Shane Lee Brown was 23 years old at the time of his arrest, and his height is 5 feet and 7 inches, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Still, officers booked Brown at the Henderson Detention Center and transferred him to the Clark County Detention Center on a warrant for a different man, described as five feet 11 inches, 49 years old, and white with a “bushy white beard” and blue eyes.
“It’s pretty hard to make a mistake of that magnitude when you have such different characteristics and races of a suspect,” attorney Brent Bryson wrote in the lawsuit the Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained.
The suit named the city of Henderson, its police department, and police Chief Thedrick Andres in the suit as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
The plaintiff of the suit alleged that he was driving from work on Jan. 8, 2020, when Henderson police officers stopped him. He admitted that he didn't have his driver's license but instead gave officers his name and social security card, according to the suit. The officers are accused of confusing the younger Brown with the man listed on a bench warrant and accused of illegally possessing a firearm after he was convicted of a felony in 1994.
Brown “repeatedly explained” to officers that he was not the man listed on the warrant. Attorneys stated in the lawsuit: “Upon information and belief, the unknown Henderson police officers and supervisors failed to perform even a cursory review of the warrant to determine if Shane Lee Brown was the person named in the warrant.”
Brown is seeking $500,000 in damages under federal law and at least $50,000 under state law, the Review-Journal reported.
“This happens much more frequently than what the public hears about,” Bryson told the newspaper. “It’s a result of either intentional or unintentional conduct by the officers.”
A Georgia city offered another Black man a $350,000 settlement when he was injured in another mistaken detainment on Feb. 8, 2020. Antonio Smith, the injured man police identified, accused the Valdosta Police Department of excessive force when he was shown on video being grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground by an officer in a takedown the man said broke his wrist.
In that incident, two officers were dispatched to a Walgreens in South Georgia after receiving a complaint that a man outside the business was "harassing customers, screaming loudly, and asking customers for money," police said in a Facebook post.
While one of the officers questioned one man, the other responding officer approached a man behind Walgreens and asked for identification. “While (the) first officer was running the identification provided by the subject, it was learned that he had active felony arrest warrants,” police said.
In video of Smith’s interaction with police, he can be seen explaining that he was waiting on his sister to wire him money from a local Western Union, which he frequents. Smith provided the officer with identification and was asking police to call his sister when another officer approached him from behind and attempted to restrain him without warning, the video shows.
“What are you doing?” Smith asked. The officer responded: “Put your hands behind your back.” It wasn’t long before the officer took Smith to the ground.
He cried, “It hurts!" and told the officer he had broken his wrist. Still, it wasn’t until Smith asked why he was being arrested that an officer even mentioned having a warrant for his arrest. At that point, an officer chimed in to explain that Smith didn’t have a warrant out against him. "The guy with the warrant's over there," the cop could be heard saying on video.
It’s unclear the final settlement amount, but Smith’s attorney Nathaniel Haugabrook told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they had reached a resolution, but couldn’t “discuss the actual settlement amount.”
RELATED: 'You broke my wrist': Black man sobs in pain after Georgia cop takes him down for crime he didn't do
“It’s pretty hard to make a mistake of that magnitude when you have such different characteristics and races of a suspect,” attorney Brent Bryson wrote in the lawsuit the Las Vegas Review-Journal obtained.
The suit named the city of Henderson, its police department, and police Chief Thedrick Andres in the suit as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, and Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo.
The plaintiff of the suit alleged that he was driving from work on Jan. 8, 2020, when Henderson police officers stopped him. He admitted that he didn't have his driver's license but instead gave officers his name and social security card, according to the suit. The officers are accused of confusing the younger Brown with the man listed on a bench warrant and accused of illegally possessing a firearm after he was convicted of a felony in 1994.
Brown “repeatedly explained” to officers that he was not the man listed on the warrant. Attorneys stated in the lawsuit: “Upon information and belief, the unknown Henderson police officers and supervisors failed to perform even a cursory review of the warrant to determine if Shane Lee Brown was the person named in the warrant.”
Brown is seeking $500,000 in damages under federal law and at least $50,000 under state law, the Review-Journal reported.
“This happens much more frequently than what the public hears about,” Bryson told the newspaper. “It’s a result of either intentional or unintentional conduct by the officers.”
A Georgia city offered another Black man a $350,000 settlement when he was injured in another mistaken detainment on Feb. 8, 2020. Antonio Smith, the injured man police identified, accused the Valdosta Police Department of excessive force when he was shown on video being grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground by an officer in a takedown the man said broke his wrist.
In that incident, two officers were dispatched to a Walgreens in South Georgia after receiving a complaint that a man outside the business was "harassing customers, screaming loudly, and asking customers for money," police said in a Facebook post.
While one of the officers questioned one man, the other responding officer approached a man behind Walgreens and asked for identification. “While (the) first officer was running the identification provided by the subject, it was learned that he had active felony arrest warrants,” police said.
In video of Smith’s interaction with police, he can be seen explaining that he was waiting on his sister to wire him money from a local Western Union, which he frequents. Smith provided the officer with identification and was asking police to call his sister when another officer approached him from behind and attempted to restrain him without warning, the video shows.
“What are you doing?” Smith asked. The officer responded: “Put your hands behind your back.” It wasn’t long before the officer took Smith to the ground.
He cried, “It hurts!" and told the officer he had broken his wrist. Still, it wasn’t until Smith asked why he was being arrested that an officer even mentioned having a warrant for his arrest. At that point, an officer chimed in to explain that Smith didn’t have a warrant out against him. "The guy with the warrant's over there," the cop could be heard saying on video.
It’s unclear the final settlement amount, but Smith’s attorney Nathaniel Haugabrook told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they had reached a resolution, but couldn’t “discuss the actual settlement amount.”
RELATED: 'You broke my wrist': Black man sobs in pain after Georgia cop takes him down for crime he didn't do