Mistaken identity lands innocent man in jail for 12 days

When Michael J. Cichosz applied for a sheriff's work card, his life suddenly turned into a nightmare.

About an hour after the 29-year-old Las Vegan went downtown to perform what he thought was a routine task, he wound up in a holding tank with 28 other men at the Clark County Detention Center.

Metro Police apprehended Cichosz on June 29 in their own building at 601 E. Fremont St. when a background check for the work card turned up a felony warrant for his arrest. Missouri officials wanted him for passing bad checks and being a fugitive.

Cichosz pleaded with police that they had the wrong man. He told them he had never set foot in Missouri, but to no avail. Cichosz spent the next two nights sleeping on the floor of the crowded holding tank, another two nights on a cot in a cell with 20 other inmates, and then eight more days in a private cell.

He sat helplessly behind bars as he lost seniority as a bartender at a local tavern. He also missed the last four lectures and the final examination for a biology class he paid $123 to take at the Community College of Southern Nevada. What's more, he had no attorney assigned to him, and the warrant instructed that he be held without opportunity to make bail.

If not for the persistence of the two most important women in his life -- his mother, Maureen Cichosz of Burnsville, Minn., and his girlfriend, Stephanie Day of Las Vegas -- Cichosz might remain incarcerated today. The women hounded law-enforcement authorities in Las Vegas and Missouri with dozens of telephone calls.

It wasn't until July 10 that police were convinced they had the wrong man. After 12 days in jail, Cichosz was released. The real culprit, who was using Cichosz's identity to commit the crimes, remains at large.

"I'm angry as hell about it, but there's nothing I can do about it," Cichosz said. "The biggest reason I'm mad is that police here in Nevada knew I was innocent but they weren't cooperating.

"I would have understood it if the (Metro) detectives had taken a couple of hours to check my story, but I didn't expect to be thrown in jail and be ignored."

His mother and girlfriend were even more upset by his ordeal.

"I felt powerless because no matter how many phone calls I made, I didn't seem to get anywhere," Maureen Cichosz said. "I think the fact that we were threatening to sue made a difference."

Both women said Missouri authorities were far more cooperative than their Las Vegas counterparts.

"Honestly, had we not called and raised hell, he would still be in jail," Day said. "If we were not on the outside raising a stink with every government agency, he would have just sat there."

Cichosz applied for the work card in order to tend bar at the Idle Spurs Tavern on Rainbow Boulevard. He needed the income to help him get through college.

When he was booked into jail, he was photographed and had to sign standard paperwork. Cichosz said he couldn't understand why police didn't send copies of his photo and signature samples to Missouri authorities that day.

"The first thing police could have done was given me the benefit of the doubt," Cichosz said. "It turned my life upside down."

But Metro spokesman Lt. Rick Alba said police cannot assume suspects are not guilty just because they say they are.

"Suspects don't always tell the truth, and they will try to pull your leg," Alba said. "They'll make you believe they can sell you the London Bridge for 50 bucks."

Wearing shorts and a T-shirt, Cichosz was initially placed in the holding tank where the air conditioning was on so high he said he "froze his butt off."

"I just kept expecting them to let me out," he said. "I wanted to get out because I had to work that evening."

Private jail cells are awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. It wasn't until his fifth day that he received a private cell.

Cichosz said he spent Independence Day in lockdown because he had left his cell early that afternoon without making his bed. Cichosz said he and fellow inmates were let out of their cells to make phone calls. In the rush to grab a telephone ahead of other inmates so he could call his girlfriend, Cichosz said he forgot to make his bed. His penalty allowed him to be released from his cell for dinner only over one 24-hour period.

"I was upset that they had me in jail, but what was I supposed to do, rip the place up?" Cichosz said. "All it is, is a ... business. What is it they say in this town, that casinos are the number one business in town and jails are number two?"

While he was in jail, his mother and girlfriend worked the phones. Day learned about Cichosz's arrest almost immediately but didn't want to disturb his mother while she was visiting another son in Montana. Maureen Cichosz didn't learn about the incarceration until four days later.

"When I found out what happened, I felt bad for him," she said. "I felt guilty because I was enjoying myself in Montana."

She thought about hiring a Las Vegas attorney to help out but said the lawyer wanted $3,000, including $1,000 up-front. So she gambled that her own persistence would pay off.

"Fortunately for Michael, his family, friends and colleagues love and respect him," Maureen Cichosz said. "What happens to the poor (guy) who doesn't even have that going for him?"

During his only appearance before a judge, Cichosz said he signed a document waiving his rights so he could be extradited to Missouri. He said he did so because a court bailiff told him he would have to spend up to 90 days in jail if he refused to cooperate.

"They wouldn't let me have a public defender explain it to me," he said.

In Clark County, the public defender's office typically won't assign an attorney to an individual until formal charges have been filed. Charges were never filed against Cichosz locally.

He knew he wasn't the man police were looking for, but it wasn't until his release that he learned the real culprit was a former roommate he had in Arizona two years ago.

That man, using his own photograph, obtained a phony Missouri driver's license late last year under Cichosz's name, date of birth and Social Security number. The culprit then produced the fake identification to pass the bad checks, again using Cichosz's name for the signature. At least three counties in Missouri subsequently filed bad-check warrants against Cichosz.

Jeff Mittelhauser, the prosecuting attorney in Pettis County, Mo., said the warrant issued by his county was for a check of slightly more than $300 written to a music-instrument store there. The same individual passed at least three additional bad checks in that county, all in early April.

"He (the perpetrator) did it not as a joke on Michael Cichosz," Mittelhauser said. "He did it because he thought he could get away with it."

Alba said Metro reacted as swiftly as possible to the case by requesting samples of the fraudulent checks from Missouri on June 30, a day after Cichosz was arrested. But Metro didn't receive them until July 7. Alba said Metro then sent examples of Cichosz's handwriting and his photo to Missouri. It wasn't until July 10 that Missouri authorities confirmed Cichosz was the wrong man.

But Cichosz said Metro should have known by July 7, three days before his release, that he wasn't guilty because police had the comparative writing samples by then.

"This is stuff they could have done the first day," he said.

The phony Missouri driver's license with the photo of the real culprit also was forwarded to Metro Police on July 10, the day Cichosz was released. Cichosz immediately recognized his former roommate, whose real identity was relayed back to Missouri.

"This does happen occasionally," Alba said of Cichosz's plight. "That's why the police go to such great lengths to determine that the person in custody is the person in the warrant. We did absolutely everything that we could. And it sounds like the other agency (in Missouri) was doing everything they could also.

"What occurred is unfortunate but not unreasonable. He was a victim of circumstances."

Mittelhauser conceded that had Cichosz been arrested in Missouri, his case would have been cleared up much sooner. But because Cichosz was detained "four states away," there wasn't much Missouri authorities could have done.

"It would not be typical to exchange that (photo and signature) information with a law-enforcement agency out of state," Mittelhauser said. "This is not something that we would routinely check out. When we have the name, date of birth and Social Security number and it matches, we think we have the right man in jail."

After his release, Cichosz was offered reduced hours at the tavern because other bartenders were hired during his absence. And he will have to rearrange his fall college schedule to repeat the biology course. He said that will force him to wait an additional year to obtain a license as an occupational-therapy assistant.

Cichosz remains worried that there will be future warrants for his arrest should the culprit pass bad checks in other states.

"I used to be a patient person, but now I find myself very ornery," Cichosz said. "It doesn't take much now to get me upset."

Mittelhauser is sympathetic.

"I'd feel awful crummy and hurt and blame everyone I practically could," he said.

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