GRAND FORKS, N.D. (KFGO) – A Golden, Colorado man is suing the Grand Forks Police Department and claiming he was wrongfully arrested for a sex crime because of a spelling error in an investigation.
The complaint filed in Federal Court says Deryck Middleton was arrested at his Golden home in October of last year and accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor.
The suit claims that an investigation by Officer Jennifer Freeman with the Grand Forks Police Department was trying to identify a man who goes by Vincent. Vincent had reportedly been having sexual chats with a Grand Forks 13-year-old. The man said he lived in Michigan, was in high school, and ran on the track team.
While subpoenaing information from Google trying to find Vincent, Officer Freeman allegedly misspelled an email address by using the letter ‘a’ instead of the letter ‘e’. Officer Freeman reportedly used the name ‘Vincent Mozzarella’ in her search instead of ‘Vincent Mozzerella’, the complaint says that Vincent Mozzarella is the name of Middleton’s dog, and the source of the email name.
The misspelled email address brought up Middleton in Colorado. The complaint says that information using the correctly spelled emails brought up an IP address in Michigan, and the name Vincent, which matched what was said during the chats with the 13-year-old.
Middleton says he had never been to Grand Forks or had any contact with the 13-year-old.
The lawsuit also accuses the Grand Forks State’s Attorney’s Office of negligently signing an arrest warrant for Middleton.
“A proper and thorough review of the information contained in the investigation file should have led the prosecutor to discover the discrepancies and deficiencies in Officer Freeman’s investigation,” the complaint says.
The complaint says that Middleton, who is applying for U.S. citizenship, feared that his life was over, his work was impacted and he could now face problems with his green card status and citizenship application.
The Grand Forks Police Department, City of Grand Forks, Grand Forks State’s Attorney’s Office, four police department employees and two employees of the state’s attorney’s office are listed as defendants in the complaint.
The Grand Forks Police Department told KFGO News that they are aware of the lawsuit, but are not providing comment.
Middleton is asking for a jury trial and seeking damages for losses faced because of the investigation. The complaint also asks that the Grand Forks Police Department adopts stricter policies, training and accountability for criminal investigations.
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