By The Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) -- A federal jury has awarded $750,000 to a 49-year-old handyman who was held at Cook County jail for more than two weeks because authorities thought he was someone else.
The jury awarded the money on Tuesday to Emiliano Hernandez of Chicago who alleged that he was denied due process in a lawsuit filed against Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan.
Hernandez was “assaulted, battered, threatened, physically examined, handcuffed harassed, humiliated and inoculated” while in jail, said Joseph Longo, Hernandez’s attorney.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office could not be reached for comment Wednesday morning.
Hernandez spent the night in jail after Chicago police stopped him on June 9, 1999, for failing to make a complete stop at a traffic signal, Longo said. A judge dismissed the charges when he appeared in traffic court the next morning and ordered that Hernandez be released on $500 bail until he provide proof of insurance.
But instead of being released, Hernandez was taken to Cook County Jail by correctional officers who thought he was Enrique Hernandez, a different man named in an outstanding arrest warrant.
Enrique Hernandez was wanted on a driving under the influence charge.
In the days that followed, Emiliano Hernandez’s wife went to the jail with documents proving that the man they had in custody was not the one they were looking for, but was turned away, Longo said.
He was released on June 24, 1999.
“Can you imagine being in jail for 15 days for mistaken identity? It’s outrageous,” Longo said. “Had they checked his documents, he would have been out in a day, but they didn’t want to bother. They had no procedures to do it. And 4 1/2 years later he still has nightmares.”