The Jennifer Heath Box lawsuit is a federal civil rights case filed in September 2024 against Broward County, Sheriff Gregory Tony, and four sheriff’s deputies over her three-day wrongful jailing at Port Everglades on Christmas Eve 2022. In September 2025, a federal judge denied the deputies qualified immunity and let her Fourth Amendment claim proceed, while dismissing two due process counts under an Eleventh Circuit rule that shields short mistaken-identity detentions. The case is active in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
What Happened at Port Everglades
On December 24, 2022, Box was disembarking Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas in Fort Lauderdale after a family cruise. When she scanned her ID, deputies surrounded her and told her there was an outstanding warrant out of Harris County, Texas, for child endangerment. Deputy Peter Peraza handcuffed her aboard the ship and proceeded with the arrest, over immediate protests from Box and her husband that this was the wrong person.1CBS News Miami. Woman Sues Broward County After Mistaken Identity Arrest, Jailing After Cruise
The warrant belonged to Jennifer Delcarmen Heath, a different woman wanted on felony child endangerment charges in Harris County. A Houston Police Department employee had attached Box’s driver’s license photo to the warrant for the actual suspect.2Reason. Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
The two women shared a partial name and little else. The actual suspect was about 23 years younger than Box, roughly five inches shorter, and had different hair color, eye color, and skin tone. They held different Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and home addresses. The suspect had five young children; Box had three adult children.3NBC Miami. Woman With Similar Name as Suspect Suing Broward County Over Mistaken Arrest When jail staff scanned Box’s driver’s license at booking, no warrants came back for her. Peraza pressed forward with the booking anyway, without verifying the warrant or contacting Texas.4Institute for Justice. Florida Mistaken Identity Arrest
Three Days in the Broward County Jail
Box was strip-searched, subjected to body cavity searches, fingerprinted, and processed into the jail. She described cells that were abnormally cold, with guards in winter gear while inmates had only a blanket, and death metal music playing around the clock. At one facility she was made to shower behind a thin curtain visible to male and female guards.4Institute for Justice. Florida Mistaken Identity Arrest
She appeared for a hearing on Christmas Day, was not allowed to speak, had no attorney, and was denied bond. Throughout her detention she kept telling anyone who would listen that they had the wrong person. “Nobody would listen to me that they had arrested the wrong person,” she later said.5Institute for Justice. Victory: Broward County Officers Not Entitled to Qualified Immunity for Arresting Innocent Woman in Case of Mistaken Identity
Her family hired a Texas attorney, who confirmed with a Harris County deputy that the two women had different birth dates and different FBI numbers. Her brother, a Georgia police officer, used his law enforcement credentials to make roughly a dozen calls to the Broward Sheriff’s Office before reaching Deputy Anthony Thorpe, who agreed to contact Harris County on December 26. That evening a jail official acknowledged to Box that she was not the person named on the warrant, but told her she could only leave if Harris County came to retrieve her or the correct suspect was arrested. She filed a written complaint at a jail kiosk asking for a fingerprint comparison. She was released the morning of December 27, after more than 75 hours in custody. On the way out, sheriff’s personnel told her, “It happens.”2Reason. Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
The Federal Lawsuit
Box filed suit on September 19, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, case number 0:24-cv-61734. The defendants are Broward County, Sheriff Gregory Tony, and Deputies Peter Peraza, Monica Jean, Jasmine Hines, and Anthony Thorpe.6CourtListener. Box v. Broward County, Florida The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian.7Institute for Justice. Complaint and Jury Demand, Box v. Broward County
Box is represented by the Institute for Justice through its Project on Immunity and Accountability. The complaint alleges the deputies violated her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizure by arresting and detaining her despite obvious evidence she was not the person named on the warrant. It also alleges that Sheriff Tony is liable under a municipal liability theory for inadequate identity-verification policies during warrant arrests.2Reason. Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
The complaint identifies five specific policy failures at the Sheriff’s Office: no requirement to cross-reference booking documents against the warrant, no requirement to verify fingerprints against the person named, no protocol for verifying identity when there is reason to doubt it, no procedure for halting booking when identifying information does not match, and no clear mechanism for arrestees to report mistaken identity. The lawsuit also points to two earlier mistaken-identity arrests by the Broward Sheriff’s Office, one in 2010 and one in January 2022, to argue the Sheriff had prior notice of a recurring problem.2Reason. Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
The September 2025 Ruling on Qualified Immunity
The defendants moved to dismiss, in part on qualified immunity, the doctrine that shields officials from civil suit unless their conduct violated clearly established constitutional rights. On September 3, 2025, Judge Damian denied that defense and let the core Fourth Amendment claim proceed.5Institute for Justice. Victory: Broward County Officers Not Entitled to Qualified Immunity for Arresting Innocent Woman in Case of Mistaken Identity
The judge wrote that the deputies had a “mountain of evidence” they had the wrong person and that their failure to verify Box’s identity was “not reasonable.” She found that Eleventh Circuit precedent, including Tillman v. Coley and Cannon v. Macon County, gave the deputies “fair warning that their conduct was unlawful.” The Fourth Amendment is violated, she noted, when officers arrest someone despite “observable differences” from the warrant’s description and have “plenty of time” to verify but “ignored red flags.”8Institute for Justice. Box v. Broward County, Motion to Dismiss Decision
Not everything survived. Judge Damian dismissed with prejudice the two counts alleging arbitrary deprivation of liberty under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause. She held she was bound by the Eleventh Circuit’s decision in Sosa v. Martin County, which treats a mistaken-identity detention of three days or less as failing to state a due process violation as a matter of law.8Institute for Justice. Box v. Broward County, Motion to Dismiss Decision That rule traces to the Supreme Court’s 1979 decision in Baker v. McCollan, which held that a three-day detention over a holiday weekend on a valid warrant did not amount to a constitutional violation.9SCOTUSblog. Florida Man Contests Three-Day Rule in Case of Jailing Over Mistaken Identity
What remains is the Fourth Amendment unreasonable seizure claim against the deputies and the policy-failure claim against Sheriff Tony. Jared McClain, the senior Institute for Justice attorney on the case, said the ruling “makes it clear that when police overlook obvious evidence that they’re arresting the wrong person, they’ll be held accountable.”5Institute for Justice. Victory: Broward County Officers Not Entitled to Qualified Immunity for Arresting Innocent Woman in Case of Mistaken Identity
The Three-Day Rule Behind the Partial Dismissal
The dismissal of the due process counts turns on what the Institute for Justice calls the “three-day loophole.” Under the Eleventh Circuit’s reading of Baker v. McCollan, a person wrongfully detained for three days or less on a valid warrant effectively has no due process claim, regardless of how obvious the mistake was or how insistently the person protested. The Supreme Court declined to revisit the issue when it denied certiorari in Sosa in October 2023.9SCOTUSblog. Florida Man Contests Three-Day Rule in Case of Jailing Over Mistaken Identity
The Institute for Justice has said it is pressing both Fourth Amendment and Due Process theories in Box’s case as part of a broader effort to challenge that time-based cutoff. The firm has also pointed out that Box had an unusual advantage: a brother in law enforcement who could work the phones. People without those connections, the firm argues, often sit longer because they cannot get anyone to check.4Institute for Justice. Florida Mistaken Identity Arrest
Where the Case Stands Now
Mediation in August 2025 did not produce a settlement. The defendants filed answers to the surviving claims on September 18, 2025. A jury trial had been set for January 26, 2026, but the parties filed a joint motion in October 2025 to amend the scheduling order.6CourtListener. Box v. Broward County, Florida No reporting in the record indicates whether Jennifer Delcarmen Heath, the woman actually named on the original warrant, has been apprehended.