Porcha Woodruff, 32, filed suit on Thursday in the Eastern District of Michigan, against the city and Detective LaShauntia Oliver for false arrest and imprisonment, civil rights violations, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. She is seeking unspecified punitive and compensatory damages at a jury trial.
Cops showed up at Woodruff’s door on Feb. 16 while she was readying her other two children for school and with a warrant for her arrest for robbery and carjacking.
Pointing to her swollen belly, she asked if they were joking, she says.
The victim had identified her from a photo lineup after being robbed and carjacked at gunpoint a month earlier by a man and his female accomplice.
The robbery victim later said he and the woman, Trinidad, had sex before he drove her to a house where his car and pants were stolen. But police never asked him if the person he had sex with was pregnant, the lawsuit says.
Moreover, the victim had identified Woodruff via photo lineup, using a 10-year-old picture of Woodruff from a previous arrest rather than the current driver’s license photo they had access to, according to the suit.
Woodruff’s door and her fiancé tried to convince officers to check the warrant to see if there was any mention of the suspect being pregnant. But they would not, the lawsuit states.
They also did not show her photo to the male accomplice, who was picked up a short time after the robbery, for corroboration.
After they picked her up, Woodruff spent 11 hours in police detention, subsisting on just one glass of lemonade, suffering cramps and feeling contractions all the while, she said in her suit.
She went immediately to the hospital after being freed on a $100,000 bond, where two bags of IV fluids had to be pumped into her, she said. She was released when the contractions subsided.
“This case highlights the significant flaws associated with using facial recognition technology to identify criminal suspects,” the lawsuit states. “Despite its potential, law enforcement’s reliance on facial recognition has led to wrongful arrests, causing humiliation, embarrassment, and physical injury, as evident in this particular incident.”
On March 6, the charges were dismissed without prejudice for insufficient evidence, according to court documents. Detroit Police Chief James White said the matter was being investigated.
“I have reviewed the allegations contained in the lawsuit,” White told the Daily News in a statement. “They are very concerning. We are taking this matter very seriously, but we cannot comment further at this time due to the need for additional investigation. We will provide further information once additional facts are obtained and we have a better understanding of the circumstances.”
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