Source: Getty / Getty
Police in Oregon are being accused of working backward from a witness statement to photoshop a picture of a man, in order to have him implicated in a robbery, and increase the likelihood he would be identified in a photo lineup.
In Portland, Oregon, which happens to be dubbed the whitest city in the country, it is believed the police digitally altered a picture of 50-year-old Tyrone Allen, in a direct attempt to have him implicated for a bank robbery that occurred earlier this month.
This move came after employees at the bank did not mention the perpetrator as having tattoos on his face. The man that is the victim of this has notable tattoos on his face, and his picture was doctored to remove those tattoos to have him accused as the culprit.
“I basically painted over the tattoos,” police forensic criminalist Mark Weber testified. “Almost like applying electronic makeup.”
“It’s unbelievable to me that police would ignore the fact that no teller has described a person with glaring tattoos and make this man into a possible suspect by covering them up,” a law professor Jules Epstein told the paper. “They’re increasing the risk of mistaken identity.’’
Allen was arrested, and he is now awaiting trial for three counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery. US District Court Judge Marco Hernandez will be in charge of determining whether the manner in which he was arrested, was lawful, and ultimately decided if the doctored photo can be used as evidence.
