Special Reports

9 Investigates mistaken identity after teen wrongly accused

By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com
By Mark Becker, wsoctv.com

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Milton Dunlap could not keep from smiling as he sat in cap and gown and gripped his new diploma from the NASCAR Technical Institute.

Almost lost in the pomp and circumstance of the ceremony was the fact that the story could have had a very different ending.

A little more than two years ago, police and state troopers swarmed Milton's neighborhood in southwest Charlotte, where they'd followed four break-in suspects in a black SUV.

Milton had run inside his house when he heard the commotion. Five minutes later, he heard someone on a bullhorn ordering him to come out.

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“They told us to come out with your hands up. You see all these red beams, dogs barking, helicopters around,” Milton said.

Officers in body armor got him on the ground and handcuffed him.

“I was in shock because I didn't have a voice. I was like, 'It wasn't me' this whole time, just preaching that it wasn't me,” he said.

  • CLICK PLAY: Milton Dunlap discusses arrest

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Police told him that a state trooper had identified him as the driver of the SUV, and officers took him to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department headquarters for questioning and then to jail.

“I just went into my little glass box in the holding downtown and just cried,” Milton said, and at 17 he could see his dreams being derailed. “I did not want to get that low to go to jail, and I'm already there after high school.  It just threw me for a whirlwind.”

His mother was even more upset.

  • CLICK PLAY: More from Milton's mother Kim Richardson

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“When they told me that they had arrested him, I was in disbelief,” Kim Richardson said.

She went to police headquarters and then to court to tell anyone who would listen that her son — who had never spent a night away from home — could not possibly have been involved.

“I felt like it stole his innocence. It changed my view of the legal system,” she said.

Richardson and her family spent the next several days gathering evidence, including Instagram photos, proving that Milton was at home at the time of the break-ins. Finally, four days after he went to jail, Milton walked out, the charges dismissed.

“It happens all the time,” said Kevin Tully, Mecklenburg County’s chief public defender.

Tully said eyewitness testimony — even from police officers — often proves to be unreliable.

“The basic starting point is admitting that police are human, that they make mistakes,” Tully said.

In this case, police were ready to admit that they got it wrong.

“Certainly. We arrest thousands upon thousands every year, and if we get one wrong, we take it seriously,” CMPD Deputy Chief Jeff Estes said.

After Milton was released from jail, Estes went to deliver a personal apology.

“I met with the young man personally myself to say, ‘Hey, we were wrong,’” Estes said.

But Milton’s mother said the episode has convinced her to look at the bigger picture.

“I feel like there may be other examples of that of guys that are wrongfully arrested that are in jail now,” Richardson said. She wants to start a foundation to help others — particularly young men — learn how to interact with police.

  • CLICK PLAY: Milton Dunlap at his graduation

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Two years after he went to jail for something he did not do, Milton wants people to know that he isn’t bitter, because he can finally look ahead to a career he’s always wanted.

“I went and got my diploma, and I feel like I can do anything now,” he said.

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