Woman sues Broward County after mistaken identity leads to arrest, jailing
FORT LAUDERDALE - A woman has filed a lawsuit against Broward County, the Broward Sheriff's Office, arresting deputies and correction officers, claiming she was mistakenly arrested after coming home from a Royal Caribbean Cruise on Christmas Eve two years ago.
Jennifer Heath Box, 50, who was jailed for three days, described her ordeal during a news conference Thursday with her attorneys with the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm.
Box said the arrest violated her constitutional right to be "free from unreasonable searches and seizures," as well as her "right to due process."
The attorneys representing Box said she was mistaken for another woman, also from Texas, named Jennifer Delcarmen Heath, who is 23 years younger.
BSO defended the arrest, saying it was based on information from the U.S. Customs and Harris County, Texas, where the arrest originated.
"The Broward Sheriff's Office sympathizes with the difficult situation Ms. Jennifer Heath Box was in late last year," BSO said in a statement Thursday.
"Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff's Office, Customs and Border Patrol would not have flagged Ms. Box, BSO would not have been notified and she would not have been arrested."
What led to the arrest?
In December 2022, Box went on a cruise aboard Harmony of the Seas with family members to celebrate her younger brother Mark beating cancer for the second time.
On the morning of Christmas Eve, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol alerted a BSO deputy that a passenger exiting a cruise ship at Port Everglades had an outstanding warrant for her arrest on a charge of felony child endangerment.
When Box scanned her ID to get off the ship, she said deputies surrounded her and told her there was a warrant for her arrest.
Box, knowing they had the wrong person, gave deputies her license and date of birth, and explained that all three of her children were now adults.
"They had the wrong person"
BSO Deputy Peter Peraza handcuffed her on the ship and took Box to a police car for additional questioning, according to the lawsuit. While in the car, she continued to tell them they had the wrong person.
The suspect in the child endangerment was younger than one of Box's children.
Their height, eye color, hair and skin tone differed, along with the home address, driver's license number, Social Security number and Harris County System Person Number, the attorneys said.
"The issue was the fact that my driver's license photo was attached to her warrant," Box said. "None of my information was attached to the warrant other than my photo. So at that point I thought I was going to be released."
Although the booking officer ran her driver's license number and told Peraza she had no outstanding warrants, the officer insisted she was the right person based on the photo attached to the warrant, Box alleges.
Box's time in jail
She said she was strip searched.
"Over the next three days, she faced horrible conditions," according to a news release from the Institute for Justice. "A male inmate routinely tried to enter Jennifer's cell while she was alone, and officers blasted death metal over the speakers and freezing air into the cell, making it so cold that she had to sleep back-to-back with another inmate just to keep warm. "
Her brother Mark, who is a police officer, was able to figure out that a Harris County employee had accidentally attached Jennifer's driver's license photo to the warrant instead of the suspect's photo.
On Dec. 27, Jennifer was released from custody.
Missing Christmas with the family
"It was really difficult for me because having to call my kids and tell them I wasn't gonna be there for Christmas and to hear that I hurt them because I wasn't there," Box said.
"Broward County officials just told her, 'It happens,'" the Institute for Justice said in the news release. "But by this point, she had already missed Christmas with her children, and her eldest son, who serves in the Marines, was deployed before she returned home."
BSO said in the statement, "The actions of the BSO deputy involved in arresting Ms. Box were reviewed by the Broward Sheriff's Office Internal Affairs Division, and no employee misconduct was found. The matter is now closed."
Harmony of the Seas, launched in 2015, has a maximum capacity of 6,780 passengers and 2,300 crew, and its homeport now is Galveston, Texas.
Box said this was the first time going on a cruise and because of her experience, it will be her last one.
