A New Kensington woman who said she was assaulted after being wrongfully arrested last year as a result of mistaken identity is suing the Pittsburgh police and the officer who filed the charges.
Desiree Pinkston, 35, said in her federal complaint that Pittsburgh officer Morgan Logan, who was investigating a Sept. 19, 2019, stabbing in East Hills, arrested her based on her name alone, without doing any further investigation.
The lawsuit includes claims for false arrest and malicious prosecution.
According to the lawsuit, one of the people accused in the stabbing was Shaylon Pinkston, and officers believed she had committed the crime with her sister.
However, according to the lawsuit, Desiree Pinkston is not Shaylon Pinkston’s sister.
Nonetheless, the lawsuit said that Logan filed a criminal complaint against Desiree Pinkston, charging her with conspiracy to commit homicide, aggravated assault, riot and related counts.
Three days later, the lawsuit said, he arrested her at her New Kensington home in front of her 12-year-old daughter.
As Logan was arresting her, Pinkston asked if her arrest “had to do ‘with what I saw in the news.’ ”
Logan said yes, “It involves your sister, Shaylon Pinkston,’” the lawsuit said.
It was then, the lawsuit said, that Desiree Pinkston told Logan that woman was not her sister. She also showed Pennsylvania identification “showing that she was not the person officers thought she was.”
During the arrest, officers asked to see her lower left leg and whether she had a certain tattoo, the lawsuit continued.
“Pinkston showed the lower left leg which failed to show the tattoo officers were looking for,” the complaint said.
Still, she was taken into custody. At arraignment, the lawsuit said Pinkston was given a bond of $20,000, which she was unable to post for 24 hours.
While incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail, the complaint continued, Pinkston was assaulted. She received treatment at UPMC St. Margaret after her release.
The lawsuit also notes that Pinkston missed work because of her arrest and incarceration.
On Sept. 24, 2019, while meeting with the Allegheny County Public Defender, Pinkston learned that the charges against her had been withdrawn due to “mistaken identity,” the lawsuit said.
“It is believed, and, therefore it is averred that the City of Pittsburgh Police officers arrested Pinkston based on her last name and nothing more,” the lawsuit said.
The complaint accuses city officers of failing to show photos of Pinkston to the alleged victims — or conducting any other identification procedure prior to her arrest. Instead, the lawsuit said, the Pittsburgh police officers showed Pinkston’s photograph to the victims of the alleged assault after she’d already been taken into custody.
“The victims stated to the officers that Pinkston was not the perpetrator of the assault,” the lawsuit said.
Even though the charges were withdrawn against her, Pinkston said in her complaint that her arrest generated a lot of publicity, and that she still gets approached about it.
Attorney Michael Healey, who represents Pinkston, said that the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations did a review of his client’s arrest, and that the case is pending before the city Citizen Police Review Board.
