Man says AI and facial recognition software falsely ID'd him for robbing Sunglass Hut and he was jailed and assaulted
A 61-year-old man living in California said he was wrongly accused of robbing a Sunglass Hut in Texas, arrested and then sexually assaulted by inmates after facial recognition software falsely identified him as a suspect.
On Jan. 22, 2022, two armed men threatened a store manager and an associate and stole thousands of dollars in cash and merchandise from a Sunglass Hut in Houston, according to a lawsuit filed Jan. 18 in Harris County District Courts.
One of the men demanded all the money in the store, while the other grabbed as many pairs of sunglasses as he could, the suit alleges. The manager and the associate were then forced into the back of the store while the robbers fled.
The lawsuit accuses the head of loss prevention for EssilorLuxottica, the parent company of Sunglass Hut, of using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software to identify Harvey Murphy Jr. as a suspect. It says the companies "compared unclear security footage" to Murphy's mug shots from the 1980s when he was convicted of nonviolent burglaries.
But at the exact time of the robbery at Sunglass Hut, Murphy was 2,000 miles away in Sacramento, California, where he lived, the suit says.
The charges were ultimately dropped, but the damage had already been done.
"Mr. Murphy’s story is troubling for every citizen in this country," his attorney Daniel Dutko said in a statement. "Any person could be improperly charged with a crime based on error-prone facial recognition software just as he was."
The suit says Houston police were investigating the robbery. Detectives talked to the store employees, reviewed surveillance video and found video of the getaway car with stolen license plates, according to the lawsuit.
As detectives worked to find the robbers, the head of loss prevention for EssilorLuxottica called the department and said police "could stop their investigation because he found their guy," the suit alleges.
"He stated that he worked in conjunction with Macy's loss prevention to determine that the person who violently robbed the Sunglass Hut was Harvey Murphy Jr.," the lawsuit says. "Using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software, EssilorLuxottica and Macy's took the video from the robbery and determined that Murphy was the robber."
The head of loss prevention also told police that Murphy had previously robbed the store, as well as a Macy's in Houston, according to the lawsuit.
The suit alleges that Houston police went back to the store to conduct a suspect photo lineup with the manager and the associate but that EssilorLuxottica refused to let the manager participate.
The lawsuit accuses EssilorLuxottica of prepping the store associate and says she was "primed to identify Murphy as the robber."
A warrant was issued for Murphy, who was arrested after he returned to Texas to renew his driver's license, the lawsuit says. Houston police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In jail, the suit says, Murphy was "beaten, gang-raped, and left with permanent and lifelong injuries."
"A few hours before Murphy was to be released from jail, he was followed into the bathroom by three violent criminals," the lawsuit says. "He was beaten, forced on the ground, and brutally raped."
After the attack, one of the inmates threatened Murphy and told him not to tell anyone, according to the lawsuit.
"Murphy was released a few hours later, but in some ways, he never left jail," the suit says. "His time in jail will stay with him forever. Not an hour goes by without Murphy reliving the brutal attack and rape. Worse than that, the attack left him with permanent injuries that he has to live with every day of his life. All of this happened to Murphy because the defendants relied on facial recognition technology that is known to be error-prone and faulty."
Murphy's lawsuit names EssilorLuxottica and Macy's as defendants. Macy’s declined to comment, and EssilorLuxottica could not be reached Thursday.
He is seeking $10 million for negligence, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and gross negligence.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
