An Arizona man says he wrongfully spent 17 days in a rural New Mexico jail in 2021 after American Airlines mistakenly pinpointed him while helping police with a theft investigation at DFW International Airport, according to a lawsuit filed in Fort Worth Monday.
Michael Lowe, a Grand Canyon tour guide, said he was forced to sleep on the concrete floor that smelled of “urine and feces” in a small, overcrowded jail in Tucumcari, N.M., for more than two weeks, costing him thousands of dollars in lost tourism business.
That’s all because Fort Worth-based American Airlines incorrectly provided his name to police, who wanted a list of passengers on a flight Lowe took a year earlier, the lawsuit said.
Although Lowe was later cleared of the crime, the lawsuit said his incarceration “has shaken his identity to the core and cast a pall over his view of the world” and that he suffers from anxiety and depression because of the experience.
Lowe was traveling from Flagstaff, Ariz., to Reno in May 2020, with a connecting flight at DFW Airport, when there was a break-in at a duty-free store at the airport, according to the suit. In investigating the case, DFW Airport police used surveillance footage to show that the suspect had boarded American Airlines flight 2248 to Reno, the same flight Lowe was traveling on.
Airport police asked American Airlines for the flight manifest of all passengers on the plane. For some reason, American Airlines returned just one name, that of Michael Lowe, the lawsuit said. That resulted in a warrant being issued in Tarrant County for Lowe’s arrest.
Lowe was arrested more than a year later while traveling to Quay County in New Mexico for an Independence Day celebration after police were checking IDs while investigating a local disturbance. Lowe’s name came up with a search warrant and he was arrested.
The lawsuit said Lowe didn’t see a judge for eight days after his arrest and that he didn’t have a lawyer to explain to him what was happening. He was released nine days later with no explanation.
Lowe said he was finally able to clear his name after contacting the detective at DFW Airport, who said he was arrested based on the information given by American Airlines. He was eventually cleared after investigators compared his picture with that of the surveillance footage of the suspect.
“American breached its duty of care to Mr. Lowe by failing to comply with the search warrant, and instead providing only Mr. Lowe’s information to law enforcement, Lowe’s suit said. “American Airlines should have provided its entire flight manifest as ordered by the warrant or a list of all individuals who matched a certain description.”
