LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Lee County woman claims she was wrongfully charged for a felony crime she didn’t commit.
Charlotte County Sheriff’s detectives believed Angelique McGuire was one of the woman seen in a surveillance video, where two women are caught stealing more than $1500 worth of items from a Victoria Secret in Port Charlotte last summer.
“As soon as you click on Lee County, my picture was sitting right there,” said Angelique McGuire who says the arrest made her feel ashamed.
In the investigation report, detectives say someone called the tip line identifying the woman in the blouse in the video as McGuire and, “based on her walking motion, body size and identical hair piece and eyelashes,” there was probably cause for her arrest.
McGuire claims the woman in the video couldn’t have been her. "I have visible tattoos that girl does not have," McGuire said.
Additionally McGuire says she was scheduled to work at a 7-Eleven in Lee County during the time the crime occurred.
McGuire says detectives should have done a more thorough investigation to make sure they arrested the correct person.
"I would like an apology because that's not fair to me. I had to go to jail. I had to bond out on money I didn't have, I lost my job at 7-Eleven because of that,” McGuire says.
“We would have liked for there to be a more thorough investigation. Unfortunately there wasn't. I don't know if the cops in this case did anything wrong. They certainly could have done more though,” said Lance Dunford, a Fort Myers defense attorney.
Dunford says apologies from law enforcement agencies and state attorney’s offices are rare.
”Just because I fit the description, there's still other ways to figure out that wasn't me,” McGuire said.
Detectives eventually cleared McGuire and closed the investigation.
