Lawsuit claims JSO wrongly arrested five people

Five people filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office wrongfully arrested them.

The lawsuit claims JSO has a custom of “conducting constitutionally, unreasonably insufficient investigations.”

Tilly Lee Winburn and Brian Richard Garrett said they were wrongly accused of shoplifting at the Wal-Mart along Beach Boulevard in April.  The lawsuit said JSO arrested both people for grand theft without probable cause.

The lawsuit also claimed a 13-year-old suffered severe emotional distress after JSO accused and detained him for armed robbery.    The boy is only identified as J.H. in the documents.

“The JSO detective aggressively questioned J.H., demanding that J.H. admit to having committed an armed robbery,” the lawsuit claimed.  It also said the boy did not have a parent, guardian or attorney with in while he was detained.

The lawsuit claimed Joshua James Angel spent nine months in jail after being wrongly arrested for robbing a man near a gas station along Emerson Street in September of 2012.

JSO falsely arrest Yemanh Gebremedhin after he was accused of burglarizing a beauty supply store in April 2013, according to the lawsuit.

Attorney Andrew Bonderud is representing all five people in one collective lawsuit classified at Winburn et al v. Rutherford.

Bounderud represented a woman who sued the Clay County Sheriff's Office after deputies misidentified and wrongfully arrested her.  She has the same first and last name as the correct suspect.

WOKV has reached out to Bounderud and JSO and are waiting for comment from both parties.