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Wells Fargo Sued By 63-Year-Old Pastor They Wrongfully Accused of Forging Checks (nj.com)
Wells Fargo has been hit with a lawsuit from a 63-year-old pastor at the United Methodist Church of Parsippany. Wells Fargo sent his ATM photos to the police, which he says led to false arrest, malicious prosecution -- and humiliation. NJ.com reports:
In the lawsuit filed Thursday in Morris County Superior Court, attorneys for the 63-year-old pastor sought unspecified damages against Wells Fargo, which has come under fire over a series of scandals in recent years. Also named were the State Police detectives who originally brought the charges against him last year after bank security officials allegedly mistakenly identified a photo of Edwards taken at an ATM machine as a suspect in a series of fraudulent check deposits....
In the lawsuit, Edwards' attorney wrote that Wells Fargo notified the State Police when it discovered the bogus transactions, and the bank was asked to provide any still photos or video images taken from the ATM at Parsippany where some of the checks were deposited and later cashed out. The bank sent photos of Edwards, who had made his own deposit of checks at the same ATM the very same day, according to the complaint...
The pastor said he first discovered he was the focus of a criminal investigation last year after a parishioner texted him a State Police Facebook posting requesting the public's help identifying a man suspected of depositing fraudulent checks at an ATM... In an interview, Edwards said after seeing the post, he called the detectives and shared a copy of his banking transactions to show he had not deposited the fraudulent checks. "I thought it would clear things up," he said. "They said all their information was from Wells Fargo..." Last September, Edwards said he was asked to come down to the State Police station in Holmdel. After he got there, he said he was shocked to find out he was being arrested and charged with third degree forgery. When he protested and said somebody made an error, he said one of the investigators asked him if the case did go to trial, who would the jury believe -- a bank security expert or him?
"They fingerprinted me. Took my mug shot and gave me a court date," he said.
The case fell apart, but the 63-year-old pastor says he never received an apology from the police, or from Wells Fargo. "The carelessness of both Wells Fargo and the State Police is kind of appalling, and I wonder what happens to somebody who might not have the resources to defend themselves," the pastor told NJ.com. "I told them yes that was my picture and yes I was in the bank that day. That's all they needed to arrest me."
A spokesman for Wells Fargo told the reporter they'd be unable to comment "since this is a pending legal matter." But the story was submitted to Slashdot by someone claiming to be pastor Jeff Edwards. "Wells Fargo carelessly provided ATM pictures [of] me to the state police in a fraudulent check investigation that led to my arrest," reads the original submission.
"The case was dismissed when it was demonstrated that Wells Fargo had been grossly irresponsible."
In the lawsuit, Edwards' attorney wrote that Wells Fargo notified the State Police when it discovered the bogus transactions, and the bank was asked to provide any still photos or video images taken from the ATM at Parsippany where some of the checks were deposited and later cashed out. The bank sent photos of Edwards, who had made his own deposit of checks at the same ATM the very same day, according to the complaint...
The pastor said he first discovered he was the focus of a criminal investigation last year after a parishioner texted him a State Police Facebook posting requesting the public's help identifying a man suspected of depositing fraudulent checks at an ATM... In an interview, Edwards said after seeing the post, he called the detectives and shared a copy of his banking transactions to show he had not deposited the fraudulent checks. "I thought it would clear things up," he said. "They said all their information was from Wells Fargo..." Last September, Edwards said he was asked to come down to the State Police station in Holmdel. After he got there, he said he was shocked to find out he was being arrested and charged with third degree forgery. When he protested and said somebody made an error, he said one of the investigators asked him if the case did go to trial, who would the jury believe -- a bank security expert or him?
"They fingerprinted me. Took my mug shot and gave me a court date," he said.
The case fell apart, but the 63-year-old pastor says he never received an apology from the police, or from Wells Fargo. "The carelessness of both Wells Fargo and the State Police is kind of appalling, and I wonder what happens to somebody who might not have the resources to defend themselves," the pastor told NJ.com. "I told them yes that was my picture and yes I was in the bank that day. That's all they needed to arrest me."
A spokesman for Wells Fargo told the reporter they'd be unable to comment "since this is a pending legal matter." But the story was submitted to Slashdot by someone claiming to be pastor Jeff Edwards. "Wells Fargo carelessly provided ATM pictures [of] me to the state police in a fraudulent check investigation that led to my arrest," reads the original submission.
"The case was dismissed when it was demonstrated that Wells Fargo had been grossly irresponsible."
It's the 'Guilty until proven innocent' game again.
I think there is a bit of misunderstanding there regarding word arrest.
"They fingerprinted me. Took my mug shot and gave me a court date,"
I don't think he was put into holding cell/prison waiting for the trial (which is the meaning of arrest in case of flight risk or possibility of muddling up the case). I think he was handled as arrested person, with mug shot and related paperwork and let out, asking him to come back to court (which did not happen, as case was dismissed beforehand).
I suppose that story would be a lot weaker if instead of saying 'arrest' and 'mug shot' it would instead say "they invited me to police station and took picture to compare with one taken at the ATM, but before case went to court, they realized timestamps were mismatched" ;)
I'm all for him suing Wells Fargo/police/whoever was involved, but it doesn't sound like he was put into prison cell in meantime.
Anybody still using Wells Fargo as a bank at this time should be charged - with criminal stupidity.
That is all.
This is also a failure of the US justice system. The costs of losing a case are marginal for the state, while the costs of winning are astronomical for the accused.
It is a perversion compared to other systems, where the state has to compensate any falsely accused for time and money spent in court, and especially for time in prison.
....but no law enforcement organization is going to admit guilt (or issue an apology) under a civil suit. Worse, any money you win from them comes from you eventually in the form of taxes.
That's why I think that all police malpractice judgements should come out of the police retirement fund, not tax revenues. This would break the "blue wall" by incentivizing officers to inform on each other to protect their own interests.
If he has an account with Wells Fargo then one of the things he had to agree to was mandatory arbitration.
You'd think a pastor would be able to trust that his word would be taken seriously and in good faith, but not even our pillars of the community get the benefit of the doubt anymore.
Why should being a pastor give anyone a pass? Someone who makes their living telling people that they should believe in an invisible man in the sky and a special book and give the church money or they will burn can easily be interpreted as a con man. No I don't really think that this person is a con artist (not intentionally anyway) but I'm puzzled by people who think being a religious leader somehow makes a person automatically trustworthy or a "pillar of the community". If anything I regard religious leaders as more suspect than most because they are selling hope on a false (or at least unverifiable) premise. Many religious leaders abuse the trust placed in them - see how the Catholic church continues to employ and protect pedophiles for a prominent example.
I fully agree that this case was handled extremely badly and that this guy probably is a good and decent person. I'm fully aware that Wells Fargo is a company run by untrustworthy asshats with plenty of evidence to back that up. I don't agree that his choice of vocation should grant him any special privileges any more than you or me. That's how abuses of position and power happen.
The police are not on your side, unfortunately. Don't talk to them without a lawyer, you will get burned.
You are correct that they are not on your side and that you should be very careful in your dealings with them. However it is no axiomatic that you will get burned. Most of the time the cops are decent people trying their best to do the right thing. The problem is you can't tell when they aren't so you have to defend yourself by being careful in your dealings with them because it can backfire horribly if you aren't careful.
This is also a failure of the US justice system.
Newsflash, motherfuckers; don't be chumps. This is the 'justice" system the way it's supposed to. What; you didn't think it existed to benefit you, did you??
Yes, and it would appear that being a man of the cloth provides you absolutely zero credibility these days with regards to that as well.
Why on earth should being a "man of the cloth" provide any special credibility? If anything it should be a strike against them given that they are in most cases literally selling a false and/or unverifiable claims of the supernatural. (those churches get built with real money that came from someone and someone pays the pastor's salary) They get away with it mostly because of social tradition but it's not difficult to make the case that what they are doing fits the description of fraud or at the very least a hoax. I'm not saying this guy is (intentionally) doing anything reprehensible but he doesn't deserve any special trust or credibility just because he preaches on Sunday.
The police did their job and they did it correctly.
No, they didn't.
You get a complaint and some evidence, and the accused says "I didn't do that".
He also gave the police the ATM receipts and transactions on his OWN account. That should have been the red flags for the police. Their job was to go back with that evidence and get Wells Fargo to confirm the account matches the guy they are looking for. Like, before they bring the guy in and book him and threaten him with "well it's Well's Fargo's word against yours, you lying bank fraudster." Completely unprofessional.
And as many crimes as Wells Fargo has been caught committing, they should really have been more skeptical of anything they said. Not so for the pastor, they could have checked and seen he did not have a record.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Well, the same can be said for your post. Corruption will always be around as long as there are humans, but that wasn't what the parent argued. He argued that in the rest of the world they are not professional thugs .
Whether that's correct or not is debatable, but presumably he meant in the rest of the civilized world. And I've never seen a police officer threaten with - and resort to - torture (electric chocks) on the spot, instantaneously and without hesitation when their victim is not 100% submissive and compliant immediately in any presumed civilized country but the US.
The police in the US has a serious problem with how it deals with the civvies. Pulling up a list of "look, there's vaguely related problems elsewhere too" doesn't prove anything.