Identity Theft Victim Says She Spent Days In Jail After Wrongful Arrest

A Georgia woman is suing police in Florida after she was arrested, extradited and jailed for days in connection with a crime that was actually committed by someone who’d used her stolen driver’s license, a new lawsuit says.

In the suit, Karen Maloof, 54, said that a Palm Bay Police Department officer who wrote a probable cause statement missed “obvious red flags” and failed to meet basic investigative standards before she was arrested in connection with a U-Haul van that was rented — and then stolen — by someone using her ID. Maloof filed the lawsuit last week against the officer and the department in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, accusing them of falsely arresting her.

Maloof first reported her Georgia driver’s license stolen in 2017 and received a replacement soon after, according to the lawsuit. She didn’t run into any issues with the license until 2023, when federal law enforcement officers arrested her at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and informed her that she had a warrant for her arrest in Palm Bay, Florida, a place she had never been to, the suit says.

But someone had fraudulently used Maloof’s stolen driver’s license as well as a false phone number and email address to rent the moving truck online from a Palm Bay U-Haul store, according to the lawsuit. They never returned the van, and the store decided to press charges after sending a demand letter to an address that the thief had provided — which, the suit says, was not the address on Maloof’s license.

The lawsuit then alleges that Palm Beach police officer Cody Spaulding did not make any attempt to contact Maloof at her Georgia address and that he also didn’t verify the photo provided to U-Haul during the booking process was actually of Maloof. His sworn statement led to the issue of the warrant for Maloof’s arrest.

“No reasonably well-trained police officer in Spaulding’s position would have completed the Probable Cause Affidavit against Maloof without additional investigation due to the discrepancies in the photos provided, the multiple addresses provided, and the unrelated email address provided,” the suit reads.

A spokesperson for the Palm Bay Police Department told HuffPost they could not comment on allegations in an open court case.

Maloof remained unaware of the warrant until she was arrested on May 19, 2023, when she had been set to fly to Europe for a trip with her husband. She was forcibly separated from him when federal officers at the airport detained her.

She was then informed that she was charged with grand theft auto, larceny and fleeing from justice in Florida, according to the lawsuit. She remained handcuffed in a detention room for hours and eventually was taken to Georgia’s Clayton County Jail.

“Maloof was denied the chance to give an explanation and told to ‘shut up’ any time she spoke to the arresting officers,” the suit reads.

In the days that followed, Maloof remained in jail and was then extradited to Florida, the lawsuit says. She was released on May 22 after her husband was allowed to post her bail, but her charges remained pending for months.

“All this fear, trouble, and legal expenditure could have been avoided but for the lack of care on behalf of Defendant Spaulding, the City of Palm Bay, and the City of Palm Bay Police Department,” the suit reads.

Court records reviewed by HuffPost showed that prosecutors disposed of the charges.