Man Wrongly Jailed for DUI Threatens Suit

By Jordan Quinley

Published on October 15, 2007

After showing up at the courthouse to pay some traffic tickets, Marvin Lopez was falsely arrested on outstanding warrants for charges of DUI and reckless driving. The real culprit happens to use the alias Marvin B. Lopez, which led authorities to believe that Lopez was the man they wanted. Lopez told the authorities that they had the wrong man, but they refused to check his fingerprints, according to Lopez’s lawyer, Larry Hanks. Lopez spent the next few weeks in jail until a pre-trial hearing where a prosecutor recognized that there had been a mix-up.

The county commissioner admits the incident should never have occurred in the first place, and one jail spokesman said that facility officials are taking the situation very seriously and are investigating what happened.

Lopez wants the county to pay for the error, and his lawyer is trying to settle the case out of court. But he is threatening to file suit in federal court if they don’t come to an agreement.

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