In
March of 2008, the cops misunderstood a complaint from a Springfield trucking
company about an employee who had been fired while driving trailer that
belonged to the company. Fairfax Police
wrongly assumed he had stolen the trailer and used GPA to track the man to
Georgia.
Fairfax
phoned the Georgia state police who arrested the man at gunpoint. He served 34 days in jail. A Fairfax County jury found the driver
innocent and awarded him $50,000 in damages for malicious prosecution, $200,000
for false imprisonment and $340,000 in punitive damages, just under Virginia's
cap of $350,000. The people of Fairfax
County paid the tab, the cops walked away scot-free and the Board of
supervisors said and did nothing.