Randy Wiggins (pictured) spent almost a year and a half at the Fulton County Jail for a crime he did not commit. Wiggins was reportedly booked under the name of Randy Williams, an at-large convicted child molester, and spent 525 days in prison hell being targeted and tortured by other inmates for despicable crimes they wrongly thought he was guilty of, according to WSB-TV.
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Wiggins, who reportedly has mental issues, was stopped by police back in June of 2012. When he could not produce a driver’s license, officers were convinced they had apprehended wanted child molester Randy Williams.
According to Wiggins’ lawyer, David Paul Scott, despite the fact his client kept insisting he was not the man whom police had been looking for, his objections apparently fell on deaf ears. “My guy didn’t have his driver’s license on him, so I guess out of convenience as much as anything, (police decided) we’ve got the right guy. It wasn’t the right guy, it was Randy Wiggins, not Randy Williams,” Scott told WSB-TV.
Wiggins family members allege he was terrorized in jail, raped and battered because the other inmates thought he was indeed a sex offender. Family members of the wrongly accused man have reportedly filed a federal lawsuit against the county’s prison system for its egregious mistake. Meanwhile Scott, adds, “You compare the fingerprints for this guy…especially when this guy is saying, ‘I’m not Randy Williams,’” Scott told WSB-TV, mentioning that authorities failed to conduct a fingerprint check.
The attorney then contends, “We let them know they had the wrong person. We watched him go into court, still go back out under the wrong name, still labeled as a sex offender.”
The identity error was finally noted when Wiggins went to a local hospital for a mental health check up.
As to how the Wiggins/Williams mix up occurred still appears to be a mystery. The perplexing situation is certainly not even explained in the pat response Fulton County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Tracy Flanagan provided to WSB-TV. “It’s unclear how the wrong person was arrested for the other Randy’s charges,” says Flanagan. “This matter is under investigation, and there’s nothing more I can share due to the investigation and pending litigation.”
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Man with Mental Illness Wrongly Imprisoned For 525 Days Under Sex Offender’s Name was originally published on newsone.com
