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Mistaken Murder Arrest Still On Man's Record 37 years Later
James White had forgotten about that night. It had been almost four decades after all. The night in 1975 when Commerce City Police pulled him over then mistook him for a murder suspect from Michigan.
His criminal background check never forgot. Prospective landlord, lenders and employers all saw one word if they checked his record: homicide.
Calls back rarely came.
Sometimes White heard someone make the discovery while on the phone with him: "Uh-oh."
"What does 'uh-oh' mean?" White said. "And how many of those 'uh-ohs' wasn't I close enough to hear?"
He never knew what was on his record until a landlord took him aside and explained why he couldn't rent to him. The word she used sticks in his mind: Murderer.
"I've never murdered anybody!" White told 9Wants to Know investigator Kyle Clark. "[It's] been on my record for 30 years!"
"There's probably a lot of places I could have gone had that not been there. And I didn't know," White said.
White has been looking for work for two years with no luck.
"I don't want to sit and draw money from the government," White said. "We need the money."
"I'll gladly give it back for a job," he said. "I'm not a lazy person."
He's not sure how much of his misfortune traces to that night: Feb. 18, 1975.
Commerce City Police pulled White over and reported he was driving erratically. He passed a roadside sobriety test. When an officer ran his ID, it brought up a warrant for a murder suspect from Detroit with the same date of birth. The officer noted White fit the description: tall, thin and black. That was apparently enough.
White was booked into the Adams County Jail where he sat for five days before someone with the Detroit Police Department apparently called to say he wasn't their man. He was released and never charged with any crime.
He had largely forgotten about the incident until the landlord referred to him as a murderer.
White's situation illustrates the reality of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's criminal background check system, which reports arrests as well as charges and convictions. The database can be searched by the public for a fee.
A bill that would have changed the way CBI reports arrests that didn't result in charges died in the Colorado House this year.
When White learned of his record, he convinced authorities to add a disposition line noting that no formal charges were filed. But he knows how that must look to employers.
"They think I'm guilty, I just haven't been caught. Or I haven't been proven guilty," White said. "They're watching their backs saying, 'Boy, I'd like to hire him, but I'm not going to take that chance.'"
The CBI holds 1.5 million background records. Employers check out potential hires every day.
"You need to know what's on your background," CBI spokeswoman Susan Medina advised. "It's happening more and more that employers are looking to a person's background to make sure they're going to be a good fit for their organization."
Even people who haven't been arrested should know their record, according to Medina.
"There's a very real possibility that somebody could have stolen your identity. That does happen, and they use your name and they're arrested somewhere and that shows up on your record," Medina said.
White cannot afford an attorney, but he plans to petition a court to seal his 1975 arrest record. He's convinced cleaning up that piece of paperwork will help him with the papers covering the rest of his desk: job applications.
"Piece of paper right now is what I am," White said. "That's it."
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