A Black man is suing two Nevada police departments after officers mistook him for an older, taller, white man with the same name and arrested him for six days.
According to the Associated Press, Shane Lee Brown, now 25, was arrested during a traffic stop by Henderson police in January 2020. Brown was jailed in Henderson city’s lockup and transferred in custody two days later to Las Vegas police where he remained until a judge ordered them to release him.
Brown is now suing the Las Vegas Metropolitan and the City of Henderson police departments, accusing them of civil rights violations, false imprisonment, negligence, and other wrongful conduct. He is seeking at least $50,000 in damages.
Officers mistook Shane Lee Brown for 49-year-old Shane Neal Brown who was described in his bench warrant as a Caucasian male with brown hair, blue eyes and a bushy white beard. He was previously convicted of a felony in 1994–before Shane Lee Brown was born– and was accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm in 2019.
According to the lawsuit, Shane Lee Brown repeatedly told officers he was not the “Shane Brown” named in the felony warrant.
His attorney E. Brent Bryson, accuses police and corrections officers of failing to perform “any due diligence” because if officers has looked at the white mugshot of “Shane Brown” they would know that his client was not the person named in the warrant.
According to KLAS-TV, a week after Shane Lee Brown was released, Las Vegas police learned that Shane Neal Brown was in custody in San Bernardino County, California. He appeared in court in February and accepted a plea deal.