Broward Co., Fla. sued for falsely arresting innocent Texas mom in case you

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A cruise ship passenger from Texas is suing a Florida county and law enforcement for falsely arresting her, leaving her feeling “humiliated” and “degraded” after days behind bars.

Nearly two years after being mistakenly identified as another woman who had a warrant out for her arrest for child endangerment, Jennifer Heath Box announced a lawsuit on Thursday against Broward County and Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Peter Peraza.

“You feel completely broken when you’re arrested because you’re humiliated, you’re degraded, it breaks you as a person,” Box said. “I’m angry about it.”

Box was surrounded by authorities as she disembarked the vessel in Port Everglades on Christmas Eve 2022 after a weeklong cruise with her family. As the mother of three scanned her ID to get off the ship, she was arrested due to a warrant for child endangerment in Harris County, Texas. Though she tried to explain to Peraza that they had the wrong person and that she was not Jennifer Delcarmen Heath, her protests were ignored and she was hauled off to jail.

(Video Credit: NBC6)

The booking officer reportedly told Peraza that Box had no outstanding warrants after running her driver’s license number, according to Box’s attorneys.

“The attorneys said a number of other details should have tipped off Peraza and the other deputies, including the name difference and the difference in age between Box and Heath, which is 23 years,” NBC Miami reported. “Heath was also five inches shorter than Box, had different color eyes, hair, and skin tone, had a different home address, driver’s license number, social security number, and Harris County System Person Number, and had five young children, compared to Box’s three adult children, the attorneys said.”

But Box was strip searched and booked into jail when Peraza insisted, based on the photo attached to the warrant, that she was the wanted suspect.

“Having to call my kids and tell them that I wasn’t going to be there for Christmas and to hear that I hurt them because I wasn’t there, as a mom that’s the first thing that tears at you,” Box said.

“Being arrested, it was humiliating, degrading, the jail cells were unbelievably cold,” she said. “I’ve never been in trouble with the law before.”

“Box spent three days in jail enduring horrible conditions, including a male inmate who routinely tried to enter her cell while she was alone, officers blasting death metal over the speakers, and freezing air being pumped into the cell, making it so cold that she had to sleep back-to-back with another inmate just to keep warm, the attorneys said,” NBC Miami reported.

Broward County and Harris County officials reportedly refused to even compare the fingerprints of the two women after the urging of Box’s brother, who is a police officer. Thankfully, his contacts were able to determine that Box’s driver’s license photo had been mistakenly attached to the warrant by a Harris County employee, setting off a chain of events that forever changed Box’s life.

When she was released from jail three days later, Broward County officials told her “It happens,” according to the attorneys. The lawsuit alleges that Box’s constitutional due process rights and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures were violated by Broward County and Peraza.

Attorneys faulted the South Florida county for not addressing a problem that they are aware exists.

“Broward County should have systems in place to ensure that the person that they’re putting in jail is the person that they’re intending to put in jail, particularly when they’re enforcing out-of-jurisdiction warrants, which they do regularly at Port Everglades,” attorney Jared McClain said. “They know this problem exists and they have done nothing to fix it.”

Meanwhile, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said it “sympathizes with the difficult situation Ms. Jennifer Heath Box was in” but defended Peraza, saying “no employee misconduct was found” after a review.

In a statement, the BSO placed the blame on Harris County’s error without admitting any wrongdoing in Florida law enforcement procedures.

“On December 24, 2022, U. S. Customs and Border Patrol alerted a BSO deputy that a passenger exiting a cruise ship at Port Everglades had an outstanding warrant for her arrest on a charge of felony child endangerment,” the statement said. “The BSO deputy followed the appropriate protocols in handling this matter, and after receiving confirmation of the Harris County warrant, arrested Ms. Box,” BSO’s statement read. “Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Customs and Border Patrol would not have flagged Ms. Box, BSO would not have been notified and she would not have been arrested.”

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.