On December the 20 two of my sisters went Christmas shopping in the Providence Shopping Marketplace in Mt. Juliet, Tn. They went to Old Navy and Body Works and made large purchases for Christmas presents for me and another sister.
All four of us went back to this same marketplace on Christmas Eve to finish our shopping we went to New York and Company, Lane Bryant and Old Navy and made our purchases and left. This mall is made up of strips of stores on sidewalks it is not an enclosed mall.
On Tuesday, January 8 the Wilson County police came and arrested my youngest sister at her job as a leasing agent of the apartment complex she lives in. She stated that they asked about the person living in her apartment number and she replied that is me. They told her she was under arrest for theft of property at The Children's Place in the Providence Marketplace in Mt. Juliet, Tn.
Thinking she could clear the situation up she nervously told them that she was at the said mall but never went into "The Children's Place". She told them she didn't have any children and asked how could this happen. They only told her that two women were seen stealing by an employee and that the women were followed and seen getting into a car and that the tags were obtained by which the police ran them to her. The two detectives arrested my sister, took her to the Wilson County Jail, finger printed and mugged shot her and sat her in a jail for 5 hours until we were able to find out where she was, find a bondsman, make the 45 minute drive and bail her out. She had sat there in the cell some 5 hrs by then. No one in our family has ever been arrested for anything so we were all confused as to the process along with being almost hysterical.
The affidavit was signed by the store manager and read that she witnessed two women stealing 2 pair of husky boy jeans along with 5 other pairs of another type of husky boy jeans, no attempt was made to stop the two women. Another employee went outside and saw the two women getting into a car. The tags were taken down and thus my sister's arrest.
This has been devastating to my sister to say the least. She is constantly in tears and very nervous. I called the store and spoke with the manager who signed the affidavit and she said there was no store video to review and that she was on a 2-way radio describing the women to the other employee who took the license tag of my sister's car. The police came back to the store with a picture of my sister's 6 yr old driver's license picture and she identified her as one of the two women.
The lawyer will take the case up to general sessions court for a semi-hefty price to us and thinks he can get "this mess" thrown out. He says that the store is liable being that they signed this affidavit. Do we have any legal recourse in civil court? This is one of the worse things besides death that has ever happened to us. The only crime my sister committed was being a black woman and possibly being with my other sister who is heavy-set and I have a pretty good hunch the women were probably hefty hiding that many jeans on their person. The affidavit failed to describe the women in any way not even in color assuming they were African American because we are. Any help in this dire matter will be appreciated.
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