A woman has sued the Los Angeles Police Department and Airport Police after they mistook her for someone else and jailed her for 13 days.
In April 2021, Bethany K. Farber was on her way to Mexico to visit family when she was stopped by TSA officials, who told her there was a warrant for her arrest in Texas. Farber asked them several times to double-check, but they “completely blew” her off. “They said, ‘Nope, Bethany Farber, we have you,'” Farber explained, ABC 7 News reports.
Her lawyer says that officials never tried to confirm her identity while she was being booked.
“Now what’s interesting, at the time Miss Farber is booked, the police do nothing to confirm whether or not this Bethany Farber is that Bethany Farber,” said Farber’s attorney Rodney Diggs. “This Bethany Farber, from what we understand, has an extensive criminal history. Her fingerprints are in the database.”
She ended up being held in Lynwood Women’s Jail without bail. After her family sent law enforcement and the district attorney in Texas photos and phone records, the prosecutor there responded. “She said, ‘Oh my God, we are so sorry, we will expedite this. We will get her out,'” Farber’s mother, Terry Brodie said, the news outlet reports. Farber was released from jail on April 28, 2021.
The entire situation was so stressful for her family that Farber says her grandmother suffered a stroke and later died. ABC 7 says the LAPD and LAX have declined to comment due to the case being pending litigation.
