CLEARWATER — A Clearwater woman arrested in a case of mistaken identity has reached a settlement with the two local law enforcement agencies responsible for her arrest.
Rosa O. Matos, 43, will receive $18,000 from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and $500 from the Clearwater Police Department, said her attorney, Everett Rice.
"I wouldn't say it was generous, but I appreciate the sheriff acknowledged that they had made a serious mistake and they were willing to pay a reasonable amount," Rice said.
The settlement, reached during a mediation hearing Monday, also stipulates that both agencies will write Matos letters of apology, Rice said.
That's exactly what Matos wanted from the start, she said Thursday.
"If I would only have gotten an apology from someone, I never would have gone to an attorney," she said.
Matos was swept up in the case in January 2008, when she was arrested on a warrant for issuing bad checks in Pasco County. But Matos wasn't the woman the agency was looking for, sheriff's officials later acknowledged.
They were actually after a woman named Rosalina Matos, whose last known address was in Junction City, Kan., where the checks — totaling $957 — were issued.
The State Attorney's Office filed charges against Rosalina Matos, a white woman, in May 2007. But when a warrant was issued shortly thereafter, the race and gender were omitted.
When Rosa Matos, who is black, applied for a job with the Clearwater Police Department, a background check revealed the warrant.
On Jan. 29, 2008, two Clearwater police officers served Matos with the warrant, which had already been matched up with her driver's license. It's unclear why Matos' information was connected to the warrant.
Matos said she showed the officers various forms of identification and paperwork to explain she was not the woman mentioned in the warrant.
Matos sued the two agencies in November 2008, alleging they had bungled the investigation and humiliated her in front of her neighbors when they arrested her at her home. Matos spent eight hours in jail and her photo was published in a tabloid that reprints jail mug shots.
"It was difficult for me to find employment after that incident," said Matos, who now works in property management.
The $18,000 will be paid by the Sheriff's Office's insurance provider, said sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll.
In addition to the $500, Clearwater police also will pay $375, Matos' share of the mediation fees, Rice said. Clearwater Assistant City Attorney Richard Hull could not be reached for comment Thursday.
On Thursday, Matos said she was happy to have the situation behind her, but that she still had concerns over the way it was handled.
"I feel that Pasco County took responsibility for what happened," Matos said.
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