FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A major mistake landed an innocent man behind bars for days. The man is now free again and talking about the major mix-up.
Ricardo Estevez was first taken to the Broward County jail in Fort Lauderdale and then to Pompano Beach.
Altogether, he spent four days in jail for a crime he did not commit.
“This can happen to anybody,” said Estevez.
He was wrongly arrested for a crime hundreds of miles away in a city Estevez has never been to.
“I own a home in Weston, you just have to do a little research and say something doesn’t make sense here,” said Estevez.
He and his attorney Jesus Bujan spoke with 7News.
After Estevez spent four long days behind bars in Broward County for being picked up on a warrant out of Lake Charles Louisiana for failure to possess the required license for home improvements.
“I’ve never been in home improvement business or anything else,” said Estevez.
The problem though was not only does he work in a completely different industry, he is the wrong Ricardo Estevez that Louisiana authorities were looking for.
“He is not the Ricardo Estevez sought in that warrant. They had the wrong man,” said Bujan.
Estevez was arrested by sheriff’s deputies after he said they ran his plates at random while he was out running errands.
When deputies saw there was an extradition order out of Louisiana, they had no choice but to arrest him.
He went to jail Tuesday.
His attorney spent days convincing Louisiana prosecutors and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office to release Estevez.
The employer of the victim in the Louisiana case, and even the man himself for which the warrant was issued, verified authorities arrested the wrong guy.
“Ricky Estevez did call my attorney, because his employer called and said, ‘Listen, I am Ricky Estevez. You have the wrong person,'” said Estevez.
“This is a case of a misidentification. I have no idea how the officer who filed the case came up with his identification,” said Bujan.
7News cameras were there when Estevez was released Friday afternoon.
“How can you make this kind of mistake? It’s horrendous. I mean, there’s not due diligence whatsoever,” said Estevez.
The arresting agency in Louisiana sent 7News a statement in part saying:
“A mistake like this should not happen. We are professionals and it is our responsibility to do our due diligence to check and make sure this type of information is correct prior to issuing a warrant. We are looking at this internally to see how this mistake was made and what changes need to take place to ensure this does not occur again.”
Although Estevez is out of jail, he said it will take some time to get his sense of security back.
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