Man wrongly jailed for 525 days under sex offender's name

11-21-2014 Georgia:

A man was wrongly arrested and held at the Fulton County Jail for 525 days under another man’s name. Randy Wiggins was mistakenly booked under Randy Williams’ name. Williams is a convicted child molester who was wanted on a warrant for failing to register as a sex offender.

“The sad part is the system failed him,” said Stephen Strong, his brother-in-law. Wiggins, who appears to have been wrongly incarcerated, suffers mental issues. The confusion began when he ran into police in June 2012.

“My guy didn’t have his driver’s license on him, so I guess out of convenience as much as anything, (police decided) we’ve got the right guy. It wasn’t the right guy, it was Randy Wiggins, not Randy Williams,” said David Paul Scott, Wiggin’s attorney.

Wiggins’ family says that he was tormented in jail because other inmates wrongly believed he was a sex offender.

“If you want to be blunt about it, he was raped and he was beat,” Strong said.

The family’s filed a federal lawsuit demanding to know how jail officials let this happen and why they didn’t check the system.

“You compare the fingerprints for this guy, are these Randy Williams, especially when this guy is saying, 'I’m not Randy Williams,'” Scott said, adding that a fingerprint check wasn’t done.

“We let them know they had the wrong person. We watched him go into court, still go back out under the wrong name, still labeled as a sex offender,” Strong said.

His family says the mistake was finally discovered when he went to Georgia Regional Hospital for a mental health checkup.

“I’m sure he is not the first and we need implement changes so that he will be the last,” Strong said.

“It’s unclear how the wrong person was arrested for the other Randy’s charges. This matter is under investigation, and there’s nothing more I can share due to the investigation and pending litigation,” said Tracy Flanagan, spokeswoman for the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. ..Source.. by Rachel Stockman