A Chester woman is suing a car dealer and one of its employees, a police department and its employees, and the city of Philadelphia over claims that she was charged with theft of a rental car that was mistakenly reported stolen.
Sherona Simmons filed a lawsuit Sept. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Infiniti of Ardmore Inc.; Robert Anderson, doing business as Infiniti of Ardmore; the city of Philadelphia; The Philadelphia Police Department; and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey; citing violations of the Fourth and 14th Amendments, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and false arrest.
According to the complaint, Infiniti provided Simmons with a loaner vehicle while her car was being serviced in February.
The suit states she was pulled over while driving the loaner vehicle on around March 13 and was arrested by a Philadelphia police officer who informed her that the vehicle had been reported stolen. She was charged with grand theft auto and imprisoned for a day. The criminal charge against her was dropped two days later as the police had contacted Infiniti and discovered the loaner car was mistakenly reported stolen by Anderson, an Infiniti employee.
As indicated in the filing, Simmons contends she was falsely arrested, imprisoned and maliciously prosecuted without probable cause. She alleges the defendants were unlawful in that they took action against her without doing a proper investigation.
Simmons claims she experienced emotional distress, damage to her criminal record and significant financial losses.
Simmons seeks damages of more than $75,000 in addition to attorney fees, costs of suit and other relief deemed appropriate by the court. She is represented by attorney Matthew B. Weisberg of Weisberg Law.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number: 2:15-cv-05020-LFR