A woman who claims she was unjustly jailed at Rikers Island over Memorial Day weekend because of an outdated warrant has filed a $3 million wrongful arrest lawsuit. After her ordeal, "a court officer apologized to me, saying, 'Sorry about your weekend,'" Bronx resident Raven Moses told the Daily News.
Moses said that she was sideswiped on the Queensboro Bridge on May 25th while driving to work; the other driver fled the scene, so she called police to file an accident report. Cops also ran her name through a criminal database and discovered she was wanted on an active arrest warrant from a 2009 fraud case. But Moses had pleaded guilty to the charge and had served one year in jail of a 1-3 year sentence already. Even though that information popped up on the search, cops weren't sure what to do—so they decided to throw her in jail.
“The facts and circumstances surrounding the old warrant were … ignored by the officers,” said Moses’ lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein. Cops claimed they couldn't verify her story at the time because everyone was on vacation. She was eventually released without ever seeing a judge. A police spokesman told the News that the arresting officer and her supervisor had verified the warrant was for some unknown reason still active.
Moses, who now carries a certificate of disposition of the criminal case in her wallet with her, is now afraid this could happen again: "I’m terrified of the police," she said. "This has been a major setback for me; I was doing the right thing, and I was penalized."
