A man spent two weeks in a Philly jail because he has the same name as an offender with an open warrant, lawsuit says
Demba Gueye, from Mauritania, was a lawful permanent resident with a valid federal ID in 2023 when he was arrested for an open warrant against a man with the same name.
A West African man was wrongly detained for nearly two weeks in a Philadelphia jail because he shares a name with a man who had an open warrant against him, a new lawsuit says.
Demba Gueye, a 64-year-old originally from Mauritania, arrived at the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice across from Philadelphia’s City Hall in May 2023 to obtain a criminal-background check for his immigration application, according to the complaint, which was filed last week in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
When a court employee ran Gueye’s name, an active two-decade-old warrant for another Demba Gueye popped up, with charges that included luring a child into a motor vehicle, indecent assault, and corruption of minors.
The lawsuit says the name is common in West Africa, akin to “John Smith.”
Though the two men have different birth dates, as the lawful permanent resident’s federal ID showed, and despite the fact that the other man had already been deported, Gueye was handcuffed and detained, according to the suit.
Gueye speaks limited English and the Criminal Justice Center did not have a translator to his native language, Fulani, on site. He was arraigned without a translator present and a judge set bail at $999,999.
Gueye was taken to the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility on State Road, where again his federal ID was ignored, the suit says. He was incarcerated from May 18 until May 30, when a judge released him on modified bail after his attorney argued that the wrong man was being held.
The criminal charges hung over Gueye until October 2023, when a judge officially closed the case against him.
The lawsuit accuses the City of Philadelphia, unnamed police officers and deputy sheriffs, and an unnamed correctional intake officer of failing to follow proper identification policies, violating Gueye’s constitutional due-process rights.
“The City has not been served, and will review the case if and when we receive it‚" city spokesperson Joe Grace said in a statement.
The complaint says that Philadelphia has failed to adequately train prison staff on identification policies, and that the city has been ignoring the consequences. The lawsuit cites four other instances over the last 15 years of people being incarcerated based on mistaken identity.
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In at least one of those cases, the city settled for an amount that is not disclosed in the court docket. Two other cases were dismissed by the court.
Gueye’s case differs from those that were dismissed because the new lawsuit argues that the problem is more pervasive than a one-off mistake, said Jason Parris, who represents Gueye. The lawsuit does not contend that the jail‘s policies are insufficient, but that correctional officers are not following those policies. And given that multiple times people were incarcerated based on mistaken identity, he said, the city should be aware of the problem.
“There seems to be a pattern,” Parris said. ”The policy isn’t being followed and the city is on notice.”