ACLU sues Bloomington police, Hennepin County, says man was wrongfully detained

Hennepin County and the city of Bloomington are facing a lawsuit that claims that their officers and prosecutors wrongfully detained and charged a man for a crime he didn’t commit.

The Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-MN) announced its lawsuit against the localities Wednesday on behalf of Kylese Perryman.

According to the lawsuit, two people carjacked a victim at gunpoint on Sept. 3, 2021, then used that stolen vehicle the next afternoon to go to Mall of America, where one of the suspects allegedly pointed a gun at a group of women, pistol-whipped one of them and then took items from them. Some of their credit or debit cards were then used at a Brooklyn Center Walmart a short time later, and the store’s security cameras captured pictures of the suspects.

Perryman, who was 19 at the time, was at work when the carjacking happened, then at a family member’s birthday party around 20 miles away from the Brooklyn Center Walmart when the suspects used the victims’ credit cards, the lawsuit states.

However, Bloomington police identified Perryman as a suspect in the robbery and issued a “Keeping Our Police Safe” (KOPS) alert for him. That alert was spotted by a trooper who pulled Perryman over for allegedly driving with expired tabs on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, the lawsuit states. Perryman was then taken to the Bloomington Police Department and booked into jail.

Perryman was kept in jail and, on the following Tuesday, a Hennepin County prosecutor charged him with aggravated robbery, saying police had identified him as the robbery suspect.

His attorneys state that all of this was done despite the fact that Perryman:

• Had tattoos on his arm that clearly showed he wasn’t the person caught on camera at the Walmart.
• Had a time-stamped picture from his family member’s birthday party while the suspects were at Walmart.
• Had work records showing he was at his job when the carjacking happened.

Perryman hired an attorney who then provided some of that information to police, but the lawsuit claims that police dragged their feet and, despite the evidence, the charges against Perryman weren’t dropped until Nov. 16, 2021.

The lawsuit notes that, during all of that time, Perryman spent five days in jail, had 30 days on mandatory house arrest, had to wear an ankle monitor, needed permission to attend his son’s birth and was stigmatized and embarrassed for something he didn’t do. Additionally, he didn’t have his record expunged until May 23, 2022, and at that time prosecutors allegedly blamed the mistake on facial recognition technology.

Perryman’s attorneys are suing Bloomington and Hennepin County for false arrest, false imprisonment, failure to train and supervise employees, conspiring to deprive Perryman of his constitutional rights and violating the Particularity Clause. They’re seeking more than $250,000, the lawsuit states.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reached out to both the city and county for comment on the lawsuit. A Bloomington spokesperson said the city doesn’t comment on pending litigation but doesn’t have or use facial recognition technology. Hennepin County declined to comment due to pending litigation.