New Jersey police recently approached a man on a light rail platform. They believed that he was the same man who was on surveillance footage on a private citizen’s home security cameras days earlier. The police officers made contact with the man because they believed that the tennis shoes he was wearing at the time had been stolen from the citizen’s front porch
The police officers later stated that the man became combative when they attempted to take him into their custody. One of the officers claims that the man kicked him in the chest. He was taken to county jail and is now facing several charges, including aggravated assault of a police officer.
The same man reportedly has legal problems in another state as well
After taking the man into custody, investigators learned that there was a warrant out for his arrest in Pennsylvania. He is accused of committing forgery in that state. As for the recent incident in New Jersey, police say the man is shown in a security film removing a box of shoes from a front porch. It will be left to the court to determine whether the man in police custody is the same man in the surveillance films.
Do police ever get identities wrong?
A prosecutor must prove that someone charged with a crime based on surveillance films is, in fact, the person featured in said film footage. If police officers arrest someone whom they believe to be a certain person, only to later discover that they mistook the person’s identity for someone else’s, it could lead to a case dismissal. Anyone in New Jersey accused of theft may want to seek legal support before a case goes to trial.