A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an Atlanta woman who was mistakenly arrested and then held in custody for 53 days before being released.
Teresa Culpepper was charged with aggravated assault in 2011, in part because she had the same first name as the actual suspect. But she was not the same age, proved that she had a different last name and also lacked a gold tooth police were told the suspect had.
Culpepper filed suit against Atlanta police and Fulton County officials over her arrest and continued incarceration. She previously settled with the city for $100,000, and two officers were disciplined because of what happened.
This week, however, Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. dismissed Culpepper’s remaining claims against prosecutors and a victim witness advocate in the Fulton District Attorney’s Office. The prosecutors, Pannell said, enjoy immunity from lawsuits arising from acts arising from the performance of their duties.
“We are obviously disappointed with the court’s order,” Culpepper’s attorney, John Merchant, said in a statement Friday. “Unfortunately, the immunity law (in this U.S. judicial circuit), especially as it relates to prosecutors, is amongst the most conservative in the country and rooted in a historical protection of prosecutors from lawsuits.”
Culpepper’s nightmare began Aug. 21, 2011, when she was arrested for attacking a man she’d never met. That man, Angelo Boyd, had told police that a woman named Teresa Gilbert had poured boiling water on his back.
Police responded and, while looking for Gilbert, arrested Culpepper instead, even though she provided officers with her driver’s license showing she did not have the same name. Culpepper appeared in court on Oct. 6, 2011, after police and prosecutors had been repeatedly informed that they may have the wrong person in custody. At the hearing, Boyd saw Culpepper and said she was not the person who attacked him.
A judge told Culpepper she would be released that day, but she stayed in jail another six days because prosecutors, who had dismissed the aggravated assault charge, had neglected to drop a battery charge against her.
Victim witness advocate Wesley Vann, who failed to pass on Boyd’s initial claim that police had the wrong suspect, did not have prosecutorial immunity. Vann had immunity from the litigation unless Culpepper could prove Vann’s actions were malicious.
While the evidence paints a picture that Vann had an “it’s not my job” mentality, there was no evidence Vann intentionally sought to harm Culpepper, Pannell said in dismissing the claim.
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