An Arizona man is coming out in a lawsuit against American Airlines after he said he was wrongly jailed for more than two weeks, according to CBS News.
Michael Lowe, a passenger who was flying with the airline in 2020 from Flagstaff, Arizona, said he was subjected to an “unending nightmare” in a New Mexico jail after being falsely accused of burglary.
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During a layover in Dallas, there was a burglary at a store in one of the terminals, and police believed the culprit was on Lowe’s plane, the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, airport police obtained a search warrant for “any and all recorded travel data” that American Airlines had about the passengers on the flight.
The lawsuit stated an affidavit from police described the suspect as a “tall and thin, White or Hispanic male with a short military style haircut, black polo shirt and blue jeans.”
However, instead of providing the information for all passengers aboard the flight, the lawsuit said, the airline instead only gave police Lowe’s information.
“It knew that if it provided the name of a single individual in response to the search warrant instead of turning over the entire flight as ordered, it was highly likely that that individual would be arrested and imprisoned,” the lawsuit said.
According to the lawsuit, Lowe was then arrested roughly a year later while he was vacationing in New Mexico on felony and misdemeanor warrants stemming from the airline’s actions.
Afterward, the lawsuit said Lowe was held in a New Mexico jail for 17 days, where he said he “lived in a constant state of fear of confrontation or abuse.”
The lawsuit added that Lowe watched an inmate get repeatedly punched in the face, faced a “near complete” lack of sleep and witnessed guards refuse medical treatment to an inmate who was vomiting.
After Lowe was released from jail and he returned home, the lawsuit said, he sobbed “until he could no longer stand.”
While the lawsuit said Lowe’s charges were dismissed, it left him with fear, nightmares and anxiety.
The lawsuit accused American Airlines of negligence in giving Lowe’s name to police and said the airline acted “with conscious indifference to the rights and safety” of Lowe.