CAROLINE COUNTY, Va. — A Virginia woman wrongfully jailed for three days under another person's name now has a legal expert telling CBS 6 she has a strong claim at both the state and federal levels against the agencies that held her.
Danielle Brown's ordeal began March 9 when she went to the Caroline County Sheriff's Office to report hitting a deer. Instead, a sheriff's deputy ran her information, and her name came back as an alias for a woman wanted on a Chesterfield County warrant.
"He comes back to tell me that he has a warrant for my arrest, which was jaw dropping to say the least, because to my knowledge, there was nothing that I could have a warrant for," Brown said.
Despite Brown telling the deputy she had never heard the name Julia Bickford, she was handcuffed and held at Pamunkey Regional Jail for three days for a crime she did not commit.
It wasn't until Chesterfield County authorities took custody of her that the mistake was caught. They confirmed she was Danielle Brown, not Julia Bickford, using her Real ID, DMV photographs, fingerprinting, and FBI identifiers, according to First Lieutenant Michael Tilley. She was released within an hour, he said.
Now, experts say the Caroline County deputy should have done exactly that before ever making the arrest.
Retired FBI Special Agent John Iannarelli said law enforcement officers have access to computer systems with detailed information and physical descriptions about wanted individuals.
Watch: Virginia woman wrongfully jailed for days after deputy mistakes her for fugitive
"Law enforcement has a responsibility to make sure that they're dealing with accurate information because depriving someone's civil liberties is a significant power that police have. If you're pulling up photographs and they don't look like the person in custody, that may be the first sign that you're dealing with the wrong individual," Iannarelli said. "This is a terrible situation that she had to endure, and frankly, she's been wronged."
Defense attorney Tim Anderson, who specializes in civil rights cases, went further. He called it "sloppy police work" and told CBS 6 that Brown has a clear path to court.
"This would fall squarely under a 1983 action for violation of her civil rights. Virginia has a false imprisonment statute that would also be able to be triggered. So she has both federal and state claims," Anderson said.
Anderson said immunity protections should not shield the deputy in this case.
"They're not going to be able to claim immunity in a federal action when they were so recklessly disregarding the facts that this person did not belong in jail on this fugitive warrant," Anderson said.
In a new statement, the Caroline County Sheriff's Office acknowledged for the first time that the process broke down saying, quote, "there were breakdowns in the process" and that they are "not satisfied with the outcome."
The statement [scroll down for the full statement] did not address the status of the internal investigation announced last week, or whether the deputy involved remains on duty.
For Danielle Brown, the statements and investigations don't erase what she lived through.
"It was horrible. I was worried about my job. I was scared that I lose my job, mainly," Brown said.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. To learn more about how we use AI in our newsroom, click here.
