Mistaken identity left LA woman jailed for two weeks, lawsuit claims

LOS ANGELES — A woman who claims she was jailed for nearly two weeks after Los Angeles police mistook her for another woman who shares her name has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was wrongfully arrested and detained.

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In the suit, filed Tuesday in federal court, Brittany Farber said she was detained by Transportation Security Administration officials and interrogated in April while awaiting a flight from Los Angeles to Puerto Escondido, Mexico. Officials told her that she was wanted on a warrant for identity theft out of Texas, though she had never been to the state, according to the lawsuit.

“All I could think was that it wasn’t me,” the 30-year-old aesthetician told NPR. “I just kept insisting that they … double-check because they had the wrong person, and I made that very clear. I told them over and over again, and they just completely blew me off.”

In a complaint filed in court, Farber said she was handcuffed without food or water for more than two hours before Los Angeles police took her jail. She remained behind bars for nearly two weeks before police released her because they had nabbed the wrong Bethany Farber, the lawsuit claims.

Police “failed to do the bare minimum to confirm (Farber’s) identity,” such as asking for her date of birth, her age or her Social Security number, according to the complaint.

“(Farber) and this other woman had nothing in common besides their name,” Farber’s attorney, Rodney Diggs, said in the lawsuit. “(Farber) is a young woman with long, blonde hair, while the other woman is older with short brown hair.”

Farber said the ordeal caused her extreme stress, anxiety and mental anguish. While she was jailed, she said her grandmother suffered a stress-induced stroke brought on by the wrongful arrest of her only granddaughter. The 90-year-old matriarch of the family died shortly after Farber’s release from jail, according to the complaint.

In the lawsuit, Diggs said officials in Texas told Los Angeles police that they had arrested the wrong woman three days before they ultimately released her.

“They have not explained why they did that,” Diggs told NPR. “They haven’t said anything at all.”

Los Angeles police declined to comment on the lawsuit, telling KTLA that officials don’t comment on pending litigation.

In a statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Farber said that the experience she went through was one that “no one should go through, especially a law-abiding citizen.”

“This is why we have our (constitutional) amendments in place to protect us,” she said, according to the Times. “We shouldn’t be fearing law enforcement.”

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