It took three years after obtaining an arrest warrant before Vermont cops arrested a pregnant woman on charges that she sold heroin to another woman who overdosed and died.
But the cops still got it wrong, arresting the wrong woman who shared the same name but different birthdate than the woman they were supposed to arrest.
Now the innocent woman they arrested, Alicia M. Kelley, has filed a lawsuit against Brattleboro Police Lieutenant Greg Eaton who was a sergeant when he applied for the warrant back in 2019 before another law enforcement agency used the warrant to make the arrest in 2022.
Three years later, police have yet to arrest the real Alicia M. Kelley who was captured on video selling heroin to a Dunkin’ Donuts employee inside the store who was then found inside the bathroom with a needle in her arm.
The employee, Brianna Radcliffe, died three days later at a local hospital, according to the lawsuit filed June 30 in federal court by Vermont attorney Brian Marsicovetere.
The defendant (Eaton), at the time the arrest warrant application was submitted, had access to pictures of plaintiff (Alicia M. Kelley) and (suspect) Alicia M. Kelley through at least one of the following sources: Department of Motor Vehicle license photos; State of Vermont and municipal databases; The Vermont Department of Corrections and social media.
The defendant did not attempt to confirm that he had the correct date of birth for Alicia M. Kelley before he applied for the arrest warrant.
The defendant never examined or compared a photo of plaintiff to a photo of Alicia M. Kelley that he identified in the arrest warrant application.
Although photos of either woman are not publicly available, the real suspect was born on May 16, 1988, while the woman who ended up arrested was born on October 25, 1988, – an overlooked detail that led to the arrest of a pregnant innocent woman on felony charges.
The lawsuit accuses Eaton of violating Kelley’s Fourth Amendment rights through unlawful seizure when he wrote the wrong birthdate on the warrant application.
Defendant engaged in willful of reckless conduct when he obtained a warrant for plaintiff’s arrest without confirming that he had the correct date of birth for Alicia M. Kelley. No reasonable police officer could justify such conduct under the circumstances.
As a direct and proximate cause of said conduct, plaintiff was unlawfully arrested and sustained loss of liberty, mental anguish, humiliation, embarrassment, and expenses to be proven at trial.
Botched Investigation
Radcliffe was found inside the Dunkin’ Donuts bathroom with the needle in her arm on June 8, 2018 and Eaton, then a sergeant, began investigating the case.
Eaton reviewed surveillance footage from inside the store showing the drug transaction and the store’s manager informed him that the woman selling the drugs was a former employee named Alicia M. Kelley.
But the lawsuit states that Eaton did not apply for an arrest warrant until May 20, 2019 which was approved by a judge from the Vermont Superior Court the following day.
The lawsuit does not explain why it took Eaton almost a year to apply for the warrant after learning the identity of the suspect but when he finally did, he listed the birthdate of the wrong Alicia M. Kelley on his application.
The lawsuit also does not explain why it took another three years to serve the warrant on the wrong Alicia M. Kelley but she was living in North Troy which is in Orleans County, more than two hours away from Brattleboro which is in Windham County.
The lawsuit states that Orleans County Sheriff Jennifer Harlow and a deputy arrived at Kelley’s house on July 13, 2022, and arrested her in front of her parents and two minor children.
Kelley, who was visibly pregnant, became “distraught, panicked and was brought to tears,” the claim states.
Her parents also became upset, insisting there must be some mistake but Kelley was arrested and spent the night in jail with her bail set at $25,000.
Adding insult to injury, the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office “posted a statement containing details of the arrest on social media which was viewed by members of plaintiff’s community.”
It was not until the following day that prosecutors realized the mistaken birthdate and dropped the charges against Kelley.
“The state further moved to modify the date of birth on the arrest warrant to reflect the correct one for the Alicia M. Kelley who was and remains wanted in connection with Ms. Radcliffe’s death,” the claim states.
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