A South Florida cook was arrested by police and spent five days in jail after being mistaken for a fugitive with the same name, similar physical appearance and nearly the same birthday.
Leonardo Silva Oliveira, 26, was wanted for violation of his probation in Boca Raton, a city in South Florida.
On January 20,
local authorities arrested a man with that name
(Leonardo Silva Oliveira) and age outside a Broward County restaurant where he works as a cook, local newspaper The Sun Sentinel reported.
But he was the wrong man.
The cook spent five days detained in the Broward County jail, until this Tuesday, when the authorities finally realized their mistake.
Oliveira said authorities should have recognized he wasn't the fugitive because he doesn't have tattoos like the other man, with a building on his left arm and a clock on his right.
"They checked my arms. They didn't see anything. But they still took me," the cook told the aforementioned newspaper.
The Coconut Creek Police Department's arrest report says the cook was identified through the Florida Driver and Car Information database, even though his date of birth was different from the fugitive's.
They are looking for a woman who was allegedly stabbed by her boyfriend in Arizona
Jan. 20, 202202:00
Palm Beach County authorities have asked for help identifying the cook as the fugitive, police spokesman Sgt. Scotty Leamon told the newspaper.
When the police stopped Oliveira outside the restaurant, this
was the first time he had been in trouble with the law.
Oliveira said that he had told everyone that they had the wrong person.
"How could he be wanted for a parole violation if he had never been arrested for anything? It was a nightmare," he explained.
He said he was locked up 24 hours a day.
"I was finally able to get out of the cell for an hour a day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. There was no TV and the window was small.
There was nothing to do
, just look at the walls and try to stay warm."
Suspects in the murder of Latina girl Melissa Ortega appear in court in Chicago
Jan. 27, 202201:46
This Monday, Oliveira hired the lawyer José Castañeda, who filed a motion for his release and also assured that the fugitive Oliveira weighed 213 pounds when he was arrested in 2017 for robbery, while his client weighs less than 150 pounds.
Before a hearing could take place, the Broward County Sheriff's Office obtained the fugitive's fingerprints and matched them to the cook's.
"When it was determined that
the fingerprints did not match,
Oliveira was immediately released from jail," said Carey Codd, a sheriff's spokeswoman.
With information from
The Associated Press
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KIKO6HTUA5FDJCVN5PDXADVCBA.jpg)
