Friend was wrongfully arrested, matched suspect description

[nj0426]

State: NJ

This is a crazy one.. my friend and I were out yesterday picking up new headlights from AutoZone. When we pulled back onto the highway we noticed a cop car had been waiting for us since it also left the parking lot and quickly came up behind us and stopped our vehicle. He had us get out of the car and handcuffed us, saying we were being detained as possible suspects in a robbery. There was apparently someone nearby who was robbed on the sidewalk by a white male wearing a black hoodie who took off in a light grey Honda Civic. My friend was a white male, wearing a black hoodie and driving a grey Honda Civic.. total coincidence, only his Civic is dark and not light like the suspect's.

The victim arrived with another officer and POSITIVELY identified my friend as the suspect.. however he is 100% innocent, we have absolutely no idea what happened but he is now facing charges of second degree robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon (a small work knife, swiss army style, found in his car) and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose with a court date pending.

What can we do at this point? I know for a fact he is innocent since I was with him the whole day. In the meantime the actual suspect is out there somewhere and the victim has no clue. They did NOT find any of the victim's belongings on us (obviously), although the police wouldn't tell us what they were looking for other than saying "items taken from the victim". All the police are going off of us a positive ID from the victim.. how well can this possibly hold up?

We were in Autozone so I'm sure we were on camera there. How do we go about getting the video from the store? They told us police would have to request it or we could get it through a court, but this would take some time.

Thanks, looking for answers on what to do!

 

[justalayman]

Thanks, looking for answers on what to do!

you and your friend need to find a lawyer asap.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Your lawyer needs to subpoena the video.

 

[Ohiogal]

State: NJ

This is a crazy one.. my friend and I were out yesterday picking up new headlights from AutoZone. When we pulled back onto the highway we noticed a cop car had been waiting for us since it also left the parking lot and quickly came up behind us and stopped our vehicle. He had us get out of the car and handcuffed us, saying we were being detained as possible suspects in a robbery. There was apparently someone nearby who was robbed on the sidewalk by a white male wearing a black hoodie who took off in a light grey Honda Civic. My friend was a white male, wearing a black hoodie and driving a grey Honda Civic.. total coincidence, only his Civic is dark and not light like the suspect's.

The victim arrived with another officer and POSITIVELY identified my friend as the suspect.. however he is 100% innocent, we have absolutely no idea what happened but he is now facing charges of second degree robbery, unlawful possession of a weapon (a small work knife, swiss army style, found in his car) and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose with a court date pending.

What can we do at this point? I know for a fact he is innocent since I was with him the whole day. In the meantime the actual suspect is out there somewhere and the victim has no clue. They did NOT find any of the victim's belongings on us (obviously), although the police wouldn't tell us what they were looking for other than saying "items taken from the victim". All the police are going off of us a positive ID from the victim.. how well can this possibly hold up?

We were in Autozone so I'm sure we were on camera there. How do we go about getting the video from the store? They told us police would have to request it or we could get it through a court, but this would take some time.

Thanks, looking for answers on what to do!

People are convicted all the time on the eyewitness account of a victim. Why? Because people believe that eyewitness ID's are correct and that they are not wrong. Your friend needs an attorney. How well can it hold up? Your friend can spend several years in prison. People on death row have been wrongly identified by eyewitnesses and are later found to be innocent on the basis of DNA evidence. What does that tell you? Was the victim of the same race or different race? Cross-ethnicity/racial identifications are even more likely to be inaccurate.

 

[FlyingRon]

Further, showing the witness the person in custody by himself, is very challengeable in court. As pointed out, this is not a do it yourself project. The lawyer will challenge the identification process and any exculpatory evidence (the video, the difference in the car used), etc... hopefully this won't get very far in the process. Felonies typically take a while to get to trial even if they get that far.

 

[HighwayMan]

An identification like that is called a "show up" (as opposed to a line up). They occur all the time, usually in close proximity to the scene of the crime and a short time afterwards.

As has been pointed out, there are many issues with eyewitness identifications. In addition, there is apparently an official "show up identification procedures worksheet" used in New Jersey which is issued by the NJ Division of Criminal Justice. Whether its use is mandatory I don't know, but that is an issue for an attorney to deal with.

See: http://www.nj.gov/lps/dcj/agguide/Eye-ID-Showup.pdf

There is alot of information in this worksheet and the last page of instructions is very informative. For instance, NJ sets a definite two hour time limit for show ups and beyond the two hours they cannot be used.

You can't do anything for your friend. He needs legal counsel ASAP.

 

[justalayman]

You can't do anything for your friend. He needs legal counsel ASAP.

I'm thinking OP might start sourcing some legal counsel as well. He states he was with the accused all day so either that will help as an alibi for the accused or it could lead to some charges for the OP.

 

[HighwayMan]

I concur.

It's seems likely that the OP will get dragged into the prosecution, especially if the matter isn't resolved quickly.

 

[CdwJava]

Was the victim at Autozone? If not, and the officer was outside, I can only think that the robbery allegedly occurred before that. So, it's possible that they believe your friend committed the crime ad then went to the Autozone.

Your friend will be able to discover what the police have against him when he obtains information via discovery.

 

[quincy]

People are convicted all the time on the eyewitness account of a victim. Why? Because people believe that eyewitness ID's are correct and that they are not wrong. ... What does that tell you? Was the victim of the same race or different race? Cross-ethnicity/racial identifications are even more likely to be inaccurate.

In a class of about 60 students a long time ago (it might have been a criminal justice class?), we were sitting listening to a lecture when a person ran into the room through one door, grabbed a student's book bag, and ran out another door. It was a professor-planned theft. Immediately after the theft, we were told to write down all we remembered of the thief. Class descriptions ranged from male to female, tall to short, black to white, bearded to clean-shaven, jeaned to sweatpanted to khaki-ed, hooded sweatshirt to baseball cap to bare-headed, and so on. We were each convinced we were right in what we saw.

When the thief returned to the room later, we realized how wrong in most respects our observations were. I have never looked at eyewitness reports in the same way again.

If a case has been built on an eyewitness report, nj0426's friend needs a good attorney to attack the validity of the eyewitness account.