There are ways in which we distinguish one John Doe from another. There are mug shots. Fingerprints. Social security numbers and dates of birth. These distinguishing factors have been around for decades, routinely used to identify one person from another, because in a nation of 330 million, names are occasionally used twice. Often more than twice. Sometimes, there are a whole bunch of John Does, or in this instance, Bethany Farber.
A Southern Caifornia woman has sued the Los Angeles Police Department after she claims a case of mistaken identity left her in jail for nearly two weeks.
Bethany K. Farber was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on April 16, 2021. According to Farber’s representatives, upon arrival at the airport, she was detained by TSA and told that there was a warrant out for her arrest in Texas. Farber allegedly told police that she had no history of trouble with the law, nor had she ever been to Texas.
Farber’s named was flagged by TSA, which is an unfortunate but fair consequence of the fact that names are the first level identifier and, despite the obvious reality that many people can share the same name, it’s the first step in determining whether the Bethany Farber at the airport is the Bethany Farber with the warrant from Texas.
It would have been at best a needless annoyance for Farber to have to wait until the mistaken identity was cleared up, and at worst could have had significant consequences of a missed flight, missed meetings or whatever her purpose of travel. For the innocent Bethany Farber, any disruption was unwarranted and she was entitled to proceed with her travel and plans without interference. Indeed, a quick look at the two women would have swiftly ended the disruption and Farber could have gone on her way.
But that didn’t happen.
“At the time miss Farber is booked, the police do nothing to confirm whether or not this Bethany Farber is that Bethany Farber,” attorney Rodney Diggs said, referring to the woman for whom the warrant was issued. “LAPD could have checked the fingerprints, her birth date, social security number, photo. They did none of that,” he continued.
Farber was arrested and spent 13 days in Lynwood Women’s Jail and was released on April 28, 2021, jail records show.
To add insult to injury, Texas informed LAPD that they weren’t holding the right Bethany Farber three days before her release, meaning that LAPD just didn’t get around to releasing her for three days after being affirmatively informed that they were holding the wrong person. Not that the impropriety by LAPD turns on the damage done, but the innocent Bethany Faber’s grandmother suffered a stroke upon learning of the arrest.
According to Farber’s attorneys, her grandmother suffered a stress-induced stroke when she learned that “her only granddaughter” had been arrested. Farber said she was able to see her grandma at the hospital days before her grandmother died.
While it may be understandable that the wrong Farber was arrested based on her name, what transpired afterward is inexcusable. Whether the police failure was the product of neglect, laziness, human incompetence or callousness is unclear, but there are systems in place that should distinguish the seizure of the wrong Bethany Farber within hours, if not minutes, so that this couldn’t possible happen. We have the technology. It just needs to be used.
But any system that relies to any extent on human input is inherently subject to failure if the cops just fail to do the most basic aspects of the job. Verifying the identity of the person being placed into custody is about as routine as it gets, as is verifying the warrant for the person being held. But if a cop can’t be bothered to do the job, use the systems available, look at the paperwork, and just shuffles it along under the assumption that it’s all fine and the warm body in custody isn’t worth the few seconds it takes to ascertain that the person whose life your ruining is the person whose life was supposed to be at issue, no system can overcome such human failure.
But that’s not all that went wrong here. Even though the warrant was out of Texas, the seized Bethany Farber had to be brought before a judge in Los Angeles to be arraigned. You don’t just get to hold people indefinitely for the sake of another jurisdiction. What happened there? Was the judge not informed of the error? Was the district attorney’s office as cavalier about holding the wrong Bethany as the police? What did her attorney do? Was her family brought to court, her documentation proving she was another Bethany, an argument made to the judge that the wrong Bethany was in custody?
The system may be no stronger than its weakest link on the cop end, but it’s not left to the cops to correct their failings. We have courts. We have prosecutors. We have defense lawyers. At worst, innocent Bethany Farber should have been brought before a judge within 48 hours and, with counsel at her side, been able to secure release and walk out of court that day. And if the judge refused to release her, then bring a writ to get her out. That’s what criminal defense lawyers do when they have the wrong person in custody.
Innocent Bethany Farber spent almost two weeks in a Los Angeles jail. There is no way the LAPD should have been able to screw this up so badly, unless they tried really hard to be as incompetent as possible. The fact that the cops failed isn’t exactly a shock, as their deep concern for the welfare of innocent prisoners is not their most lauded characteristic. But where was the rest of the system, the triad of prosecutor, defense lawyer and judge, who exist in no small part because the cops can’t be trusted not to callously and incompetently fuck up an innocent person’s life?
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You answer your own question, the “triad” can’t be trusted any more than the police. Who was her lawyer? Who was the DA?
I know “No tummy rubs”… but damn that was funny.
I needed a laugh this AM and that hit the spot like a cold beer on a hot afternoon.
You spilled my coffee.
This cartoon’s right panel captures me perfectly!
Sending this gif to Our Esteemed Host remains my single greatest contribution to this (or any) blog.
Do I know you?
I can empathize with the jailed Bethany Farber as I have similar yet different horrific story.I had the Department of Corrections in Wisconsin, in which I’ve never been an inmate, steal my social security number and commit fraud and identity theft against me. The public defender’s office,The District Attorney’s office and so-called honorable Judge did nothing to verify any information all of them should be held responsible for multiple felonies against me.None of them willing to do anything to fix the problem. Without committing being charged or convicted of any felonies now I have to live my life as a violent felon.My parents passed away less than 2 years ago and I was denied a loan to buy the house. I’ve secluded myself away from friends and family so that they’re not involved in this campaign of hate against me. I Contacted multiple news channels to no avail drove around with a 4 by 8 ft sign in the back of my truck that stated the government committed fraud and identity theft against me and I need legal representation for several hours in front of all the news channels that were covering the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Not one of them was concerned with the situation. I drove around The state capitol in Madison for several hours. Tried contacting attorneys across the country even called the White House recorded line. Almost two years to get the incorrect information off my credit reports. To make things worse the person with my same name has the same physical description as me and is now linked to my social security number and date of birth as admitted by the Department of Corrections who refuses to fix their fraudulent Behavior. I have legal register weapons and had to file a additional police report because I fear for my life everyday living as a felon, when I’m not because of criminals running the criminal justice system. To this day I have been unable to get an attorney to handle my case. I’ve been having medical complications from this for over a year and worried I’m going to have a heart attack or stroke from the severe stress. My condolences to Bethany and her family at the passing of her mom.
Since this is an older post, I’ll let you have your comment. But this isn’t the way to argue your case.
We had a father and son who were career criminals. Same first middle and last name. Same birth month and date but 20 years different; and their SSN were only a few numbers off. 2 different detectives got careless and issued warrants for the wrong one. One was caught before it got served. The other wasn’t caught until the preliminary hearing.
I’ve always hated sloppy work. If a task is worth doing, It’s worth doing right.
Is the problem one sloppy guy at the start, and everybody else relying on his not being sloppy and so never taking another look, or is it sloppy across the board?
There may be close calls that require a deeper dive into the details, but when there’s nothing more than first and last name holding a person in custody for almost two weeks, how does it pass through that many hands without anyone picking up the mistake, particularly when she’s telling everyone along the way that she’s the wrong person?
I’m guessing the plaintiff is ommitting certain details, because it doesn’t add up, for all the reasons you cited. Still, she should have never made it to the back of a patrol car if they weren’t very certain.
That said, if she took the “Never Talk to The Cops” approach, she provided them no help dispelling their misconceptions and undoubtedly reinforced them.
You’re trying too hard.
I would go back a step and question why the TSA has the power to stop people who have outstanding warrants? Their mission: “Protect the nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce.” Why are you giving the TSA a pass?
You asked “where was the rest of the system” and I would reply that ‘the system’ has become excessively pervasive. It would not surprise me if the next time I went shopping and presented my ‘VaxPass’, that I would be held and arrested for an outstanding parking ticket… or having my bank accounts frozen for donating $10 to the Ottawa Truckers Convoy.
That’s a good question, and without further research, I don’t know what authority TSA possesses to detain someone with an outstanding warrant.
For me a better question is how would TSA know she had a warrant out of Texas? I have flown many a time and no one at TSA has ever scanned my ID or checked it except to compare my picture. It just doesn’t make sense, the whole episode.
They may have more information about you than you realize, even if you’re unware of it.
Look up “Secure Flight”.
“(2) The airline has to send that information, and various other data from your reservation and personal profile, to the TSA, 72 hours before each flight (or as soon as you make a reservation, whichever comes first).”
The next step would be to determine how the LAPD found out about her from the TSA. The TSA is not supposed to have access to that information.
I would say they have no authority to detain or prevent her from continuing through the checkpoint
From what I remember from the writings of a TSA screener years ago, they have no police powers. They want to be the police and try to act like it. Just a little search comes up with this.
TSA authority derives from 49 USC 44903(d)(2):
[The] Secretary of Transportation may authorize an individual who carries out air transportation security duties– (2) to make arrests without warrant for an offense against the United States committed in the presence of the individual or for a felony under the laws of the United States, if the individual reasonably believes the individual to be arrested has committed or is committing a felony.
In State of New Mexico v. Phillip Mocek, Uncontested TSA and police testimony at the trial established, Despite calling themselves “officers”, TSA checkpoint staff are not law enforcement officers and have no police powers — and both TSA and police are fully aware of this. When the TSA calls for the police, they are just like any other civilians who call the police, and the police have no obligation to do what they ask.
The next problem is why is TSA looking at lists of people with warrants. Does not paying a traffic ticket 5 years ago make you unsafe to fly?
Of course we can’t lay the whole problem on TSA. It is just plain lazy and poor work on many people down the line. I don’t have to check, because the guy right before me surely did that step already. I’m not aware of that price departments written procedures, but I sure hope that somewhere as part of booking/holding a person even at the local station, the person’s ID is verified.
That said, I get that once she was in jail that the guards did nothing further. If they took every prisoner at their word that “you have the wrong guy”, nothing would get done. The guards job is just that, it is not to verify the person, that falls onto someone at the intake to the jail.
We’re aware they have no police powers, but that really doesn’t help given how little info there is about the initial stop itself. As far as we know, there could have been an LAPD officer standing a foot away who, upon being alerted by TSA, took her into custody. We just don’t know.
The TSA has no police power, but they can prevent you from getting on the plane, and most people will wait because they expect that the police will clear up the misunderstanding and then they will be allowed to board their flight. For example, if, when the TSA gropes your genitals, you loudly say “Woooooohooo” and when they complain, say “Sorry, I can’t help making that noise when my genitals are groped,” they will call the police, who will try really hard to contain their mirth, and will nicely ask you to stop saying “Wooooohooo” so that they can get back to work, and then you get on the plane. YMMV, but that has been my experience every time I’ve flown over the past 10 years.
And yes, the TSA has significant amounts of information about you; way more than you would expect if you haven’t been paying attention.
Is the answer apathy? They don’t care enough to make the effort?
I once asked Mr.Greenfield a question. Your response was I should read the entire SJ catalog and if I didn’t find the answer I might ask again!
I didn’t read the whole of it but one that stood out to me was this: a lawyer took great effort to write some kind of argument or motion really put a lot of thought into it ; the judge dismissed it without giving it serious consideration…. Not sure it’s much to do with this other than it might be an example of apathy.
Apathy could well have played a role here.
As you say, it started with the cops (OK, with TSA, an all too subtle distinction) and then the jailers. I’m seriously bothered but rarely shocked by the failure of cops to do their jobs. But the lawyers on both sides (assuming she had counsel at arraignment) and the court? It’s not that I expect perfection, but you’d think someone . . . .
Or maybe not. An anecdote – orthogonal, but what the hell, feel free to delete this:
George Brinkman faced capital charges for the murders of three women. Rather than go to trial, he determined to enter pleas of guilty to all charges and try only the issue of whether he’d be sentenced to execution. (He was, three death sentences.). At the plea hearing, he was represented by two experienced attorneys, both specially certified to accept appointment in capital cases. There were several experienced prosecutors at the other table. The plea was, as Ohio law requires for a capital plea, before a three judge panel.
The presiding judge, the one who asked the questions doing the plea colloquy, screwed it up, forgot to mention – as Ohio law requires when any plea is taken – that by pleading guilty George was giving up his rights to confront witnesses and to be convicted only on proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Nobody noticed. Not George’s attorneys, not any of the prosecutors, not any of the judges.
The failure in Ohio is structural error. The Ohio Supreme. Court, in a 14-page, unanimous opinion, vacated George’s three death sentences, reversed his convictions, and remanded the case for a new trial. The opinion, in what I take to be substantially generous understatement, said the collective inattention of everyone involved was “impermissible, especially in a case such as this in which a death sentence is on the line.”
Yesterday, SCOTUS denied the state’s cert petition.
One would think death penalty cases receive more than the usual lack of attention to detail. One would be wrong.
If only the lazy ones could be the ones that round up people to arrest, instead of the ones that are supposed to verify identity.
Major Strasser has been shot. Round up the usual suspects.
This is what bothers me about reports on this situation. All of them focus just on the police and the TSA. And yes, they screwed up majorly but what else happened down the line that resulted in this woman to be held in prison for 13 days? There is absolutely no reports on what happened at her arraignment. Why? That’s important because something seriously wrong had to have happened there too. Is no journalist interested to find out? Seriously? And if there was NO arraignment, then … why the hell not for 13 days?! Because that’s an even bigger problem.