Washington - He told them repeatedly his name was not Robert, but they did not listen. Nor did they check his fingerprints or photograph. And as a result, Mr Kerry Sanders (34), a mentally handicapped homeless man from Los Angeles, spent two years in jail in New York while his distraught mother searched the streets of Los Angeles for her lost son, writes Patrick Smyth.
Now the state of New York has agreed to apologise and pay $3.25 million in compensation to Mr Sanders for its mistake. Police thought he was a drug-dealer, Robert Sanders, with whom he shared a birthday and whose arrest would finally expose the error.
His lawyer has expressed concern that, despite the apology, evidence that Mr Sanders was sexually abused in prison, and that prison guards and psychiatric workers repeatedly dismissed his claims that he was not called Robert, no official will face disciplinary charges.
One prison psychiatrist even submitted evidence in a deposition that given his mental problems and homelessness Mr Sanders was better off in jail. "He should say `Thank you, for two years you guys treated me very nicely'," Dr Edward Chung said.