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| Identity Mixup Puts Man in Jail |
| By Newsday |
| Published: 04/20/2001 |
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When a Manhattan judge told Felix Melendez that he'd have to wait in custody while they determined if he was the 'Felix Melendez' listed on a Florida arrest warrant, he was not worried. 'No problem,' Melendez thought to himself. 'I've never been south of New Jersey in my life.' At the most, he recalled, 'I thought it would only take a couple of hours' to go home. Twelve days later, Melendez was unceremoniously released from Rikers Island at 5 a.m. on a frigid February morning, now jobless and without as much as a quarter to call for a ride home to Long Island. As Melendez left the jail where he had been wrongly locked up with some of the city's most hard-core prisoners, there were no apologies offered. 'As I was leaving a correction officer said to me, 'You've got a good lawsuit,' and said to sue,' said Melendez, 38, of Brentwood. 'That was it.' Last week, attorneys for Melendez took the officer's advice, filing a notice of claim stating that Melendez's civil rights were violated by the false imprisonment. The suit seeks $1 million in damages. 'I can see something like that taking maybe a few hours to clear up,' said Andrew Siben, Melendez's Bay Shore lawyer. 'But to be incarcerated for almost 13 days is inexcusable.' A dispute with his wife got Melendez sucked into the city's criminal justice system. In early February, he and his wife got into a heated argument at her Upper West Side apartment. She called 911 but Melendez left before police arrived. Several days later, Melendez said he got a call from a detective who told him that since a 911 call had been made he'd have to come to the precinct to discuss it. Melendez said he and his wife walked into the city's 24th Precinct about 6 p.m. on Feb. 12. Melendez's wife told detectives she didn't want to press charges, but Melendez was still arrested. (That case is pending but is expected to be dismissed, said a law enforcement source.) Melendez said he was booked and taken before a judge in Manhattan Criminal Court. Just after midnight on Feb. 14, Melendez was arraigned on the domestic violence charge. But instead of letting Melendez post bail and go, the judge asked him if he was going to sign the extradition hearing waiver so he could be transported immediately to Florida. When city police officers ran Melendez's information through a national crime computer, a warrant issued in Florida for tampering with evidence had popped up. Melendez said he protested to the court that it wasn't him. The names were the same, as were the month and day (but not years) of the birthdays, but nothing else on the warrant matched his personal information, Melendez said. |
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