Wrongfully Arrested Peppermill Truck Driver Slams Facial Recognition Tech

Lawyers acting for a man wrongly arrested at Reno’s Peppermill Casino following misuse of AI-based facial recognition say poor training has led police to unlawfully detain “thousands” in similar cases.

In September 2023, truck driver Jason Killinger was flagged as a “100% match” to an individual named Michael Ellis who had been banned from the venue months earlier for sleeping on the premises.

Held for 11 Hours

Killinger was detained by casino security and then arrested by Richard Jager, a rookie officer from the Reno Police Department. Jager refused to believe Killinger was not who he said he was and accused him of obtaining a fraudulent ID when he provided evidence of his identity.

The suit claims that even after his real identity was confirmed by a fingerprint check at Washoe County jail, Jager filed a police report saying that Killinger had given conflicting IDs to Peppermill security.

City Added to Lawsuit

Last week, federal Judge Miranda Du granted a motion to add the City of Reno to the lawsuit as a defendant. The primary reason was the city’s continued pursuit of legal action against Killinger after he had been exonerated, and because it allegedly failed to properly train police officers on the limits of facial recognition technology at the time of Killinger’s arrest.

However, a new filing from Killinger’s lawyers alleges that Reno police have long been aware that facial recognition results aren’t reliable enough to justify an arrest, but the department continued to follow that approach under Chief Kathryn Nance.

Jager’s conduct was not a sporadic incident involving the wrongful actions of a rogue employee, but the result of a widespread custom and practice involving hundreds of municipal employees making thousands of arrests in the same manner over a period of years,” the lawsuit claims.

In addition, Killinger argues that Jager’s conduct infringed on his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. He further alleges that Jager’s reports left out evidence clearing him based on fingerprints and inaccurately portrayed him as uncooperative and using multiple identities.

According to the lawsuit, these omissions effectively amounted to fabricating evidence through concealment. The filing asks for compensatory, special, and punitive damages, though it does not state a specific amount.

Killinger has already sued the Peppermill. That case was settled pre-trial for an unspecified sum.