Man sues American Airlines, saying he spent 17 days in jail after false accusation

An Arizona man was jailed for 17 days after American Airlines mistakenly identified him as a suspect who had broken into a duty-free shop at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and then boarded an American flight to Reno, Nev., he claims in a lawsuit. The man, Michael Lowe, contends in the suit that he had lived in “a constant state of fear” while he was jailed at the Quay County detention center in rural New Mexico, where violent outbursts erupted over trivial disputes and he saw an inmate punch another, staining the wall with blood. The lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in Tarrant County District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, and seeks unspecified monetary damages, involves “the arrest and imprisonment of an innocent man because of American Airline’s negligence,” the complaint states. In an email on Tuesday, an American Airlines spokesman wrote, “We’re reviewing the lawsuit.” Lowe’s ordeal began, the lawsuit states, when a man burglarized a duty-free shop at the Dallas Fort Worth airport on May 12, 2020, and then boarded American Flight 2248 to Reno. Mr. Lowe, a Grand Canyon tour guide, boarded the same flight to visit a friend, the lawsuit states. To identify the culprit, the airport police obtained a search warrant ordering American to produce “any and all recorded travel data for all individuals” on the flight, the lawsuit states. But according to the complaint, American gave the police information about a single passenger: Lowe. Story has details.<br/>