Can I sue the police department that falsely arrested me when I was 17?
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Can I sue the police department that falsely arrested me when I was 17?
When I was 17 there was a rumour going
around my high School saying I was going
to shoot up the school on the
anniversary of Columbine. I made
national news if you search my name on
Google there’s hundreds of pages of the
news articles. It’s embarrassing to me
I’ve been diagnosed with severe
depression, anxiety and PTSD. They had
no evidence and no weapons they searched
three of the homes I stayed at. I just
feel it was wrongful and I lost months
of my life in jail.
Asked on February 7, 2019 under Personal Injury, Alabama
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
No, you most likely can't, because if there was a "rumor" going around that you were going to shoot up the school, then the arrest of you was not something done maliciously or with wrongful intent, and was not even necessarily careless or negligent--given the magnitude of the potential threat, the police had to take preventive action. The police are generally only potentially liable if they act wrongfully--not if they take reasonable action but are mistaken.
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