A 17-year-old girl who was wrongly arrested, falsely charged with murder, then put in jail has filed a lawsuit against the city of Albuquerque.Gisell Estrada is a teenager with no criminal history and a cosmetologist student at CNM. She said her life was ruined when she was involved in a case of mistaken identity. “I just hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else, it’s not something to joke about,” Estrada said.The American Civil Liberties Union gave KOAT video of Estrada’s arrest in 2019. Estrada was charged as an adult for the 2019 murder of Calvin Kelly, spent a week in jail and was released after APD arrested a different person for the crime. The lawsuit filed Thursday morning by the ACLU and a private law firm claims false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and violation of Estrada’s state rights. “To charge somebody with a crime as an adult, seal it and ask the court to hold them prior to conviction is a big ask. You would think that they would do a thorough job in that process,” said ACLU attorney Zoila Alvarez-Hernandez.The lawsuit puts blame on APD homicide detective Jessie Carter, stating he botched the murder investigation and showed another person’s Facebook photo to Estrada’s school for identification. Estrada said the experience continues to affect her and her family and she has since been attending counseling and has trouble trusting law enforcement. “Whenever I see a cop, I feel like they are going to stop me and arrest me again,” Estrada said.The suit also states that no one from the city, APD, or Albuquerque Public Schools has apologized for what happened. The ACLU said they are waiting on a response. Sister station KOAT-TV reached out to Albuquerque city leaders, APS and APD for comment. The TV station only heard back from APD.They sent this statement:When the city is served with the lawsuit, we will review the claims and respond in court. The arrest was made based upon the information the detective had at the time and he worked with the district attorney’s office and Ms. Estrada’s attorney to dismiss charges after he learned she was not the alleged offender. The teen who is actually accused in this murder case is Lexi Barazzo, along with 15-year-old Jassiah Montoya and 31-year-old Adam Cazares. Barazzo has been behind bars for a year and has a pretrial conference set for January.
A 17-year-old girl who was wrongly arrested, falsely charged with murder, then put in jail has filed a lawsuit against the city of Albuquerque.
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Gisell Estrada is a teenager with no criminal history and a cosmetologist student at CNM. She said her life was ruined when she was involved in a case of mistaken identity.
“I just hope this doesn’t happen to anyone else, it’s not something to joke about,” Estrada said.
The American Civil Liberties Union gave KOAT video of Estrada’s arrest in 2019. Estrada was charged as an adult for the 2019 murder of Calvin Kelly, spent a week in jail and was released after APD arrested a different person for the crime. The lawsuit filed Thursday morning by the ACLU and a private law firm claims false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and violation of Estrada’s state rights.
“To charge somebody with a crime as an adult, seal it and ask the court to hold them prior to conviction is a big ask. You would think that they would do a thorough job in that process,” said ACLU attorney Zoila Alvarez-Hernandez.
The lawsuit puts blame on APD homicide detective Jessie Carter, stating he botched the murder investigation and showed another person’s Facebook photo to Estrada’s school for identification. Estrada said the experience continues to affect her and her family and she has since been attending counseling and has trouble trusting law enforcement.
“Whenever I see a cop, I feel like they are going to stop me and arrest me again,” Estrada said.
The suit also states that no one from the city, APD, or Albuquerque Public Schools has apologized for what happened. The ACLU said they are waiting on a response.
Sister station KOAT-TV reached out to Albuquerque city leaders, APS and APD for comment. The TV station only heard back from APD.
They sent this statement:
When the city is served with the lawsuit, we will review the claims and respond in court. The arrest was made based upon the information the detective had at the time and he worked with the district attorney’s office and Ms. Estrada’s attorney to dismiss charges after he learned she was not the alleged offender.
The teen who is actually accused in this murder case is Lexi Barazzo, along with 15-year-old Jassiah Montoya and 31-year-old Adam Cazares. Barazzo has been behind bars for a year and has a pretrial conference set for January.
