Todd Quinones
Reporting

Save It

Email It

Print It

(CBS 3) MOUNT HOLLY In a CBS 3 exclusive, a New Jersey man is speaking out after he was handcuffed in front of his family, hauled off to jail, and held for a week. CBS 3's Todd Quinones reports he has filed a two-million dollar lawsuit claiming it is a case of justice gone wrong.
He was on his way home with his wife driving. Al Florence was in the passenger seat while their four-year-old son in the back. "As we were going down 295, we noticed the State Trooper ahead", described Florence.
Two miles later, the New Jersey State Trooper pulled them over for allegedly speeding. A background check on their S.U.V. apparently caught the trooper's attention.

The officer said, "Well, there is a warrant out for your arrest", stated Florence.
He added that he was handcuffed and put into the trooper's car. "My son was sitting in the back seat crying asking, "Why is this happening to daddy? Where is daddy going?"", described Florence's wife April.

Florence was going to jail.

He described his experience saying, "The officer that was on duty asked to go into the stall, take all my clothes off, bend over and cough. I cried my first two nights there, literally, boo-hooed, banging on the door", he added.  "I felt helpless", said Florence's wife.

The warrant that landed him in jail dates back about five years in Essex County.  According to Florence, he ran a red light then fled police after being pulled over.  He says he was given probation and a 15-hundred dollar fine, a fine, which according to court documents, Florence paid off two years ago. They were the same documents Florence says he showed the state trooper the night he was arrested back in March.

However, New Jersey State Police says their computer system still had it listed as an active warrant and the trooper made the right decision.  Sheriff's deputies from Essex County brought Florence to North Jersey. There, seven days after his arrest, a judge finally looked over the case.

Florence says he was released almost immediately.

Authorities say it appears Florence was the victim of some sort of communication problem or computer glitch, but his lawyer thinks that is only part of it.

"None of it makes sense, so we sort of come down to the conclusion that it looks like racial profiling", stated defense attorney Susan Chana Lask.

Authorities in the case strongly deny race had anything to do with it and say there is no evidence supporting the racial profiling claim.

In the meantime, lawyers for Burlington County say the county is guilty of no wrong doing and will vigorously defend the lawsuit.