When 23-year-old Shane (Lee) Brown showed his driver’s license at a traffic stop in Las Vegas in January 2020, he was suddenly handcuffed. The officers had an arrest warrant in his name, they said. Brown was stunned. With good reason, because the arrest warrant was actually intended for the then 49-year-old Shane (Neal) Brown, a white man with a beard.
During his time in prison, the twenty-something tried several times to make it clear to the officers present that he was not the 49-year-old Shane Neal Brown they were looking for. Yet he was not released until six days after his lawyer forced the officers to match his photo with an old booking photo of Shane Neal Brown. Eight days later, the Las Vegas police would conclude that the wanted 40-year-old had already been arrested in California.
Shane Lee Brown has now taken the local police to court and is demanding $500,000 in damages. However, a police spokesman said his arrest was “justified” because he was driving with a suspended driver’s license and because he still had an outstanding fine.