A Texas Woman’s Nightmare Before Christmas

Early in the morning on Christmas Eve 2022, Jennifer Heath Box was disembarking a cruise ship in South Florida so she could fly home to Houston and spend Christmas with her three adult children. That Christmas was going to be the last she’d have all her children together, as her youngest child—her son, Christopher—was leaving on December 27 for a three-year deployment with the Marines. But Jennifer’s life was suddenly thrown off course when Broward County sheriff’s deputies surrounded her as she tried to disembark.

The deputies insisted they had a warrant for Jennifer’s arrest on suspicion of child endangerment in Houston. Jennifer and her husband, Kyle Box, immediately told the deputies that they had the wrong person—Jennifer didn’t even have minor children.

The red flags should have been obvious. Jennifer was 23 years older and 5 inches taller than the subject of the warrant. She had different color eyes, hair, and skin, lived in a different county, and had different Social Security and driver’s license numbers. The two women didn’t even have the same name; the suspect was Jennifer Delcarmen Heath. All this information was available if the officers had bothered to check.

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But having a similar name as a suspect was close enough for the Broward County Sheriff’s Office. Even when they ran Jennifer’s license and saw she had no warrants, they didn’t stop to double check. They strip-searched Jennifer, checked her body cavities for contraband, and locked her in a cell so cold that the South Floridian guards were bundled up in winter coats and hats. Jennifer had to lie back to back with her cellmate just to keep warm. But sleep was hardly an option because guards blared death metal music into the cells. “You just felt like you weren’t a human anymore,” Jennifer said.

Broward County was never going to confirm Jennifer’s identity. They did not compare Jennifer’s fingerprints or any of her information to that of the suspect. Instead, they had her arraigned and transferred her to a women’s prison where they planned to hold her until a Houston official came to extradite her—if an official ever came. 

Jennifer only got out thanks to the persistence of her husband and brother. They hired an attorney who, in just a few hours, figured out exactly where the officers had gone wrong. And then they spent Christmas calling Broward County, pleading for someone to look at the evidence. Once the officers finally acknowledged their mistake, they still made Jennifer spend another night in jail. By the time she got out, she had spent three days in a cell, missed Christmas with her kids, and missed seeing Christopher before he deployed. 

Just because the police have a warrant for one person doesn’t mean they can lock up anyone with a similar name without performing any due diligence. Putting someone in jail because their name is “close enough”—and ignoring all evidence that the person has not committed any crime—violates the Fourth Amendment and the right to due process. IJ brought Jennifer’s case as part of our Project on Immunity and Accountability to make sure that officers who make such grievous and preventable mistakes can be held accountable.

Jared McClain is an IJ attorney.