Police arrested the wrong Jennifer Heath and I spent my Christmas holidays in jail. How could police think I'm 26 if I have a 30-year-old child? I guess just go home and I'll There's no way I'm not going to go home without you. Imagine that it's Christmas Eve. You've just returned from a family cruise. You're tired but happy. You can't wait to get home for the holidays. Instead, you're suddenly surrounded by deputies, handcuffed in front of your family, and told that you're under arrest for a crime that you did not commit. That's exactly what happened to Jennifer Heath Box, a 50-year-old mother from Texas who ended up spending 75 miserable hours in a Florida jail. All because police got the wrong Jennifer jail. Are you serious? It's for endangering a child. I think y'all had the wrong person. Endangering a child. My kids are grown. They're grown in college. I first told you her story eight months ago, telling you about the lawsuit that the Institute for Justice had filed on her behalf and also asking this audience to send donations to help fund that effort. Now, I have a big update on that lawsuit that many of you helped make a reality, but it's far from over. Everything requires a subscription now. And if you're like me, you have completely forgotten all of the things that you have subscribed to and you pay money on every month that you don't even use. How great would it be if there was an app that could keep track of that for you and that could cancel your unwanted and unused subscriptions and also help you track and lower your bills. That's one of the reasons I love this video's sponsor, Rocket Money. Rocket Money is an all-in-one finance app that helps you save more and spend less. But my favorite thing is that it securely identifies these recurring charges and allows you to cancel these unwanted subscriptions with just a few taps. 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And so they had me step aside. And then at that point in time, we noticed that police were coming on to surround me and my husband. If we verify. Are you serious? If we verify. They told her there was a warrant for her arrest out of Texas for child endangerment. For what? A warrant for what? Yeah. Could you do that? It has to be verified still. Anyway, they verify it, but I mean, we're already at this point. It's for endangering a child. But the warrant wasn't for her. It was for another woman with a similar name, Jennifer Delcarman Heath. Different age, different height, different appearance, even a different driver's license and social security number. Jennifer tried to explain. She pointed out that she didn't even have young children, and the warrant involved child neglect of minor children. A child. A child and I danger. You have a child. My kids are grown here. They're grown in college. Like I said, that's why this is this something that's out of Florida. But none of it mattered. The deputies cuffed her anyways in front of her stunned family. Go ahead and do what I just saw, what I had mentioned to you. Give him everything. Let him have the phone. Hold on to the phone. So, these are the only two things we're going to bring with us. Go ahead and give him the wallet, the purse. Don't take the jewelry off if you want. If you have any necklaces, earrings, then take that off your belt. Take off. Make sure you tell him where you put all the val. Do I need this? No. No. Do you have any piercings? No. I guess just go home and I'll There's no way I'm not going to go home without you. Where's home? Texas. Houston. See our kids. That's where the worm gets out of. So there I don't know what kids I have. She has a necklace. Definitely Christmas won't forget. We're trying to make it as little as possible. And I don't understand why they this was Houston one time. I was just demand right now to show that weight. Okay. Get rid of that. Get rid of Check your back pocket, your front pocket, and a little anything small. Your earrings. I don't have any earrings. You like your prank? um was from July 20th, 2022. Okay. I was just curious like cuz I I know I've gotten pulled over before since then in Houston and I haven't heard anything. So I'm just confused with all this and I don't have a 16-year-old. There's nothing about a 16-year-old in there. My kids are all grown. I guess that's what I'm getting at. You've had no incidences at all whatsoever. ever. I promise you, I'm not even I'm sure you hear this a lot. Never have. How could police think I'm 26 if I have a 30-year-old child? Once in custody, things only got worse. Jennifer was strip searched, fingerprinted, and shoved into a freezing jail cell. Guards cranked death metal music so loud that it echoed off the walls. Detainees huddled for warmth together while officers walked around in coats. Jennifer feared for her safety, stuck in a cell with strangers, wondering if she'd ever make it home for Christmas. Meanwhile, outside, her husband and her brother, who was actually a police officer, began frantically making calls on her behalf. They contacted Texas authorities who confirmed that this was a case of mistaken identity. The woman Broward had locked up was not the same Jennifer named in the warrant. But even with that confirmation, Broward County refused to release her quickly. As a result, Jennifer spent Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after behind bars. She missed Christmas morning with her children. Even more painful, she missed saying goodbye to her son before he shipped out with the US Marines. And those are moments that she will never get back. After 75 long hours, more than three full days, Jennifer was finally let go. Not because Broward realized the mistake on their own, but only after her family hired a lawyer in Harris County, Texas, directly confirmed that she wasn't their suspect. And even then, there was no apology. As I discussed in the first video, Jennifer is fighting back with the help of the Institute for Justice, which through your help has been suing Broward County and the deputies involved for violating her civil rights. And her case raises important questions for us all. Why did law enforcement ignore so many obvious differences? Why didn't they double check before throwing an innocent mom in jail? Why do they think that they should be immune from being sued? And if they are immune from being held accountable, what's to stop it from happening again to anyone else? Fortunately, the federal court has now denied qualified immunity to the deputies in response to their motion to dismiss. where as here the police have a valid warrant to arrest somebody but mistakenly arrest the wrong person. The 11th Circuit where Florida is employs a reasonable mistake standard to determine whether or not there was probable cause to make the arrest. Here's the problem. There were numerous discrepancies between the suspect's information and Jennifer's information. And there was no reason to rush it. There were no exigent circumstances when the arrest was made, but instead the officers had plenty of time to figure out their mistake, including the fact that there were observable differences between the individual and the warrant and Jennifer, despite having plenty of time to verify, the court held the officers ignored the red flags and arrested the wrong person. Anyways, if they want qualified immunity, they have the burden of establishing that they made a reasonable mistake. And so far they have failed to do that. The court held. So the court denied qualified immunity to these officers because there was already binding case law in the 11th circuit finding similar constitutional violations under similar facts. This is great news, but it's far from over. Jennifer's story is more than just this holiday nightmare. Wrong person arrest can destroy people's lives. And without accountability, there's nothing stopping it from happening again. Just like it has happened already three times in Broward County. The court noted that in addition to Jennifer's arrest, there have been at least two other similar wrong person's arrest made by this same department. That's why she's seeking justice, not just for herself, but also to make sure that no other family has to live through what she did. So, let's continue to fund this fight by making donations to the Institute for Justice. I have the donation link below. All you have to do is click on it. The J will keep track of all of the donations that come from this audience. In the end, we can find out how much this audience helped to enforce constitutional rights and hold everyone involved in this case accountable. As soon as I hear another update in this case, I'll let you know. And you can follow along by subscribing both here and at the blog at the civil rightsawyer.com. You can follow me on XJBrian ESQ. Remember, our rights don't end where your fear begins. Freedom is scary. Deal with it.