Man Alleges $10 Million Lawsuit After False Facial Recognition Match, Raped, and Beaten

Man Alleges $10 Million Lawsuit After False Facial Recognition Match, Raped, and Beaten

Harvey Murphy was detained and imprisoned in January 2022 while attempting to renew his driver's license at a nearby DMV. A "loss prevention" agent employed by a Sunglass Hut retail business allegedly used facial recognition software to accuse Murphy of carrying out an armed robbery at a store in Houston, Texas, according to a $10 million lawsuit Murphy has since filed. Murphy was over 2,000 miles away when the incident occurred.

 

In his case against Macy's and Sunglass Hut, Murphy, 61, claims that he was "arrested and put into an overcrowded maximum-security jail with violent criminals." He suffered terrible, lifelong injuries from beatings and gang rapes when he was in prison trying to prove his innocence. The accusations against him were withdrawn, and he was freed, hours after he had been assaulted and gang-raped.

 

The lawsuit claimed, "All of this because a company told the police that you were the one who committed terrible crimes, based on artificial intelligence."

 

The armed robbery took place in Houston, Texas, on January 22, 2022. After entering a sunglasses hut and threatening two staff with firearms, two armed guys fled with money and sunglasses. The parent business of Sunglass Hut, EssilorLuxottica, employs people referred to as "loss prevention" agents who support criminal investigations, much like many major retail corporations. The lawsuit states that following the incident, Anthony Pfleger, a loss prevention worker at EssilorLuxottica, contacted the police and said he knew who was responsible.

 

According to the lawsuit, "Pfleger told HPD they could stop their investigation because he found their guy." He said that he collaborated with Macy's loss prevention to identify Harvey Eugene Murphy Jr. ("Murphy") as the perpetrator of the violent Sunglass Hut robbery. Murphy was identified as the robber in the video taken during the heist by EssilorLuxottica and Macy's using facial recognition software and artificial intelligence.

 

To identify the robbers, Pfleger collaborated with the loss prevention personnel of the Houston Macy's. In America, cameras in retail establishments are so commonplace that we frequently forget about them. These surveillance cameras monitor shoppers and, on rare occasions, give law enforcement information about criminal activity. Many of them create blurry photos and videos that make it difficult to tell who is who.

 

Retail establishments have been connecting these cameras to facial recognition software systems for the past 10 years. The concept is that a computer may automatically recognize known offenders when they enter a retail store and contact law enforcement or loss prevention officers to trace the person’s travels.

 

Despite everything, EssilorLuxottica persisted in pressuring Houston police to detain Murphy. In the lawsuit, it is claimed that after calling the police, Pfleger helped one of the Sunglass Hut staff members correctly identify Murphy in a picture lineup.

 

Sunglass Hut found Murphy to be an easy target. He was in the system and had a criminal history. He is now a grandfather who, the lawsuit claims, has changed his life. The lawsuit claims that historical mugshots from the 1980s were included in the facial recognition databases that EssilorLuxottica's computers scanned and were accessible to the general public.

 

Murphy was in Sacramento, California, at the time of the incident. It was only when he went to the DMV to renew his driver's license that he learned of the robbery and that he had been held responsible for it. He was taken into custody without posting a bond. He spent hours in jail even after providing the proof clearing him to his counsel, who was chosen by the court.

 

"Three violent criminals followed Murphy into the bathroom a few hours before he was scheduled to be released from jail," the lawsuit claimed. "He was viciously gang raped, beaten, and forced to the ground. Following this brutal assault, one of the criminals threatened to kill him if he told anybody about the rape and held a shank on his neck.