FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A wrongful arrest of a Texas woman as she got off a cruise at Port Everglades in 2022 is now leading to a lawsuit against the Broward Sheriff’s Office.
This case of mistaken identity led to Jennifer Heath Box, of Houston, spending Christmas behind bars and being strip-searched. She said she is still humiliated by the experience and wants to hold BSO accountable.
Local 10 News first reported on her case in June 2023.
“I have nothing but anger and frustration. You feel completely broken when you’re arrested, because you’re humiliated, you’re degraded,” Heath Box said. “So it breaks you.”
The incident occurred in December 2022. Jennifer and her family were returning from a cruise vacation to Port Everglades on Christmas Eve. Body camera video shows what happened when she scanned her ID while disembarking. An officer told her she had a warrant for child endangerment.
She was then handcuffed and spent the next three days inside the Broward County Jail, including on Christmas. She didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her eldest son, who was deployed on a three-year mission.
Attorneys said the arresting deputy Peter Peraza, said the birthday and name on the warrant from her home in Houston matched hers.
However, the suspect had a different name, was 23 years younger, five inches shorter and had different hair and eye colors.
“There were at least 10 differences between the woman on the warrant, Jennifer del Carmen Heath, and the woman standing with me today, Jennifer Heath Box, all of which should have been glaringly obvious to Broward County’s deputies,” said Bobbi Taylor, an attorney from the Institute for Justice.
Now, Heath Box is filing a federal lawsuit against Broward County and the sheriff’s deputies over her arrest.
“What I went through shouldn’t happen, and the fact that I’ve spent so long just trying to get my life back together,” Box stated.