A Portland teen says he spent nearly two weeks behind bars after Portland police arrested him on a fugitive warrant accusing him of second-degree forcible rape, only to have prosecutors later withdraw the charge when they determined he was not the person wanted. His attorney says the mistaken arrest cost him a new sales job and left him shuffled through six county jails in Oregon and Washington. The lawyer has filed a notice of intent to sue the Portland Police Bureau, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
Arrest, fingerprint match and release
According to a detailed account of the arrest and jailing, Officer Jeremiah Dunn arrested 19-year-old Mateo Gabriel Mendoza on March 28 after spotting a fugitive warrant in a national law-enforcement database. A Multnomah County deputy district attorney then signed an affidavit saying fingerprints taken at booking matched FBI-associated prints, court paperwork shows. Prosecutors later told a judge they had learned the booking prints did not belong to the man who was actually wanted, and a judge recalled the warrant.
A tort-claim notice and court records state that Mendoza was held for 13.5 days and moved through six county jails in two states, including about 25 hours in a sparse holding cell in Clackamas County. Jail records show he made 22 calls to the Metropolitan Public Defender while in Multnomah County custody. Mendoza told reporters he coped by reading roughly 600 pages of the Bible and doing as many as 1,000 pushups a day.
Legal fallout and next steps
The actual suspect in the Skagit County case turned himself in to authorities in Mount Vernon on April 9, and a Skagit County prosecutor asked a judge that same day to release Mendoza after learning he was not the man wanted, according to the Skagit County case timeline. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Cheryl Albrecht recalled the Portland warrant and dismissed the charge on April 15, according to court documents. Mendoza’s attorney, Bracken McKey, filed a notice of intent this spring to sue the Portland Police Bureau, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office.
What this means
In a tort-claim notice, McKey writes that Mendoza had no prior fingerprints or FBI number before the Portland arrest, a detail the attorney says highlights how the error occurred and could support a civil claim. The case is unfolding amid heightened scrutiny of Oregon’s court system and concerns that people without timely legal help can struggle to challenge warrants and detentions, an issue The Guardian has reported on.
Mendoza is now seeking work as a mechanic and says he lost a sales job he had planned to start because of the arrest. McKey has requested damages and records from the involved agencies as part of the notice of intent. Any formal lawsuit would have to follow state tort-claim procedures and could take months to move forward. For now, Mendoza is out of custody and pressing for accountability while local prosecutors review the chain of events that led to his arrest.
