A False Facial Recognition Match Cost This Man EverythingDenver resident Steve Talley files $10 million lawsuit after face-matching technology ruined his lifeBy Allee Manning
May 01, 2017 at 12:35 PM ET
One night in September 2014, Steve Talley answered a knock at his door from a man who claimed to have accidentally hit his car. He had no reason to expect that the next few moments would change the course of his life.
Dressed only in boxer shorts and a t-shirt, Talley went out and crouched in the driveway to inspect his car — but there was no damage. Suddenly, Talley said, he was ambushed. Three men dressed in what Talley describes as SWAT gear tackled, kicked and punched the then-44-year-old Denver man. After the brutal beating, one explained that Talley was under arrest for two recent armed bank robberies, one of which involved a physical assault on a police officer.
“I remember telling them they were crazy, and they had got the wrong guy,” said Talley, a father of two and financial analyst who had recently lost his job.
Talley wasn’t lying, though it would take two months for his public defender to prove it. His arrest had followed anonymous tips from people who had seen surveillance footage on the news and mistakenly thought it was Talley. His ex-wife, fighting Talley for custody of their children at the time, also identified him as the suspect. Charges were finally dropped after Talley’s lawyer unearthed an audio recording of him at work at a financial firm at the time of the first robbery.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqqJiPtWT3sNow dealing with a host of medical, personal and financial problems stemming from his arrest, Talley didn’t know how things could get worse. Then he was arrested again in December 2015, charged with committing the second bank robbery. This time, Denver police, with the assistance of an FBI examiner using facial comparison technology, claimed to match Talley with the sunglasses and hat-clad suspect. The software and approach that was used, it has been shown, only garners a subjective estimate as to whether two images show the same person. It’s meant to serve as an investigative tool not evidence.
Talley had an alibi for the day of the robbery — he had signed in to a soup kitchen across town. And yet, the case went to trial. But there was even stronger evidence pointing to his innocence. A bank teller told the jury she was absolutely certain Talley was not the robber. Further analysis of a mole on his cheek not visible in the CCTV footage and the fact that his height and weight did not match that of the suspect helped to finally convince the prosecution to drop charges. But the damage was already done.
Now homeless, unemployed, facing health complications, and estranged from his children, Talley still struggles with what happened to him.
...
Excerpt. Read more at
http://www.vocativ.com/418052/false-facial-recognition-cost-denver-steve-talley-everything/
