Mistaken Identity
Irresponsible Arrests by the Police
By Daniel Muniz

Evelyn Jean Dominguez is a woman for whom the Bexar County sheriff’s deputies were looking for throughout the city of San Antonio Texas. She had once worked for the Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector but now was indicted on two counts of bribery.

While conducting their investigation, sheriff’s deputies did manage to locate a woman named Evelyn Jean but with a last name of McRae. This particular individual did share the identical birth date with Dominguez as well as the same first and middle name but that was about it in the similarities. And apparently that was good enough for the police so they slapped the cuffs on McRae and hauled her off to the county jail.

It was to no avail when Evelyn Jean “McRae” attempted to explain to the deputies that she was not the person that they were looking for and that she could actually prove it with official documents and papers. The police were simply not interested in such evidence and felt that the system would eventually take care of it.

Ironically while sitting in the county jail, McRae’s fellow inmates immediately figured out that she not any sort of criminal at all and that she definitely did not belong in a jail cell. Unfortunately, the cops didn’t have that same kind of perception when they were looking for their suspect.

Evelyn Jean McRae, who has worked for the City of San Antonio for 25 years as well as being a mother of two, was furious at what happened to her. Although on the surface, this incident appears to be a simple case of mistaken identity, McRae insist that it is far from it. She explains:

McRae definitely has a point. This arrest is not the result of any missteps by the police but involved a rather blatant lack of negligence and recklessness.

Was it deliberate because the police officers really didn’t care about who they were arresting as long as they had a warm body to take back to headquarters?

Or was it as McRae suggested that the cops were simply not properly instructed in genuine police investigative tactics and arrest procedures?

And now to add insult to injury; KENS 5 Eyewitness News did locate the “correct” Evelyn Jean Dominguez and even managed to briefly interview her. Not surprisingly, she didn’t want to discuss anything about the arrest warrant other than to say that she did have a trial date pending.

And here is a bombshell. Dominguez also told the news crew that she has been confronted before by the police but was never even arrested at the time.

Now is a county sheriff’s department in a major metropolitan area about as competent as the Keystone Cops? Now really, the local television news station is able to find the right person and interview her but the sheriff’s deputies are content enough with arresting anybody who is close enough to their suspect?

That is not a mistake but incompetence.

McRae did end up paying the county a sum of $10,000 to get out of jail. And even though she is the wrong person that the police sought, she experienced a very difficult time getting her money back.

To make matters worse, McRae has to go through the bureaucratic red tape to get her named cleared because the Bexar County sheriff’s office is not going to do it for her. In fact, the only recommendation that the sheriff’s department had was for her to file a complaint with their internal affairs department. That is our government at work for us.

It is scary to think about future outcomes for other people because this kind of disregard for proper procedure can land just about anybody in jail. And proof and facts are totally irrelevant to the cops.

I am very much a person who supports law enforcement and the concept of law and order but it is outrageous incidents like this that make me mad. The police have to be an agency that ordinary citizens can respect and hold in high regard. That cannot happen when there are officers on the force who have not been properly trained or do not even care about their obligations when it comes to law enforcement.

I want the police to arrest the criminals so that our court system can render justice. However, law enforcement has to be willing to do their part to competently find the right people instead of harassing innocent citizens.

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