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- AI misidentification leads to wrongful Reno casino arrest.
- Officer accused of fabricating evidence and false reports.
- Lawsuit alleges civil rights violations and malicious prosecution.
A long-haul truck driver who stopped by Reno’s Peppermill Casino in September 2023 saw his evening turn into a nightmare after he was misidentified by the venue’s AI facial recognition technology as a local reprobate, according to court filings.
The facial recognition technology at Reno’s Peppermill Casino, above, produced a 100% match between Jason Killinger’s face and that of a persona non grata, leading the truck driver to sue for wrongful arrest. (Image: Shutterstock)The system flagged Jason Killinger as a man who had been 86’d from the venue months earlier for sleeping on the premises. Killinger’s face generated a “100% match” with the banned individual, who is identified in court documents only as “M.E.”
Killinger was detained by casino security and then arrested by a rookie officer from the Reno Police Department. The officer, named R. Jager in the filings, refused to believe Killinger and accused him of obtaining a fraudulent ID when he provided evidence of who he was.
The truck driver was detained for 11 hours, according to a wrongful arrest lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the District of Nevada. For four of those hours, he was handcuffed, resulting in bruises and shoulder pain, per the suit.
Killinger was ultimately freed after a fingerprint check confirmed he was not his less reputable doppelganger.
‘False Statements’
The plaintiff has already sued the Peppermill Casino in a case that was settled for an undisclosed amount. Now he’s going after Jager, whom he accuses of fabricating evidence and engaging in malicious prosecution.
Killinger claims Jager “knowingly inserted false statements” into both his incident report and arrest declaration – specifically, that his IDs were conflicting and that one or more “appeared to be fraudulent.”
This is despite the plaintiff having a valid Nevada driver’s license, UPS pay stub, and vehicle registration all bearing his name and matching physical descriptors.
The filing says this was “a deliberate falsification” intended to “manufacture probable cause” after the officer realized there were inconsistencies between the casino’s claim and Killinger’s documentation.
The lawsuit says Jager told a supervising officer that Killinger “probably has a DMV hook-up,” implying access to fake identification, although there was no evidence supported that claim.
Fabrication by Concealment
Killinger argues Jager’s actions violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. He also contends that Jager’s reports omitted the fingerprint exoneration and falsely described Killinger as uncooperative and using conflicting identities. Those omissions amounted to fabrication by concealment, the suit argues.
The complaint seeks compensatory, special, and punitive damages but does not specify amounts.
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