The three days Omar Malcolm spent in the DeKalb County Jail could pay off in a sum of up to $1.5 million, pending a settlement with the former police investigator who arrested him. Alexander Vots, the detective who was working a shoplifting case at a Verizon store, arrested Malcolm in what has proved to be a painful incident of incompetence.
In January 2016, Malcolm was one of two employees at a Verizon store who took down two would-be shoplifters and recovered a swiped IPad. Nearly a full year later, Vots was done with his investigation and was sure he had identified his robber.
After lifting fingerprints from the iPad, the detective had a suspect, none
other than Malcolm himself. Yes, that’s right. The detective lifted the employee’s fingerprints and came to the conclusion he was the thief, in spite of surveillance video that proved otherwise.
Adding insult to injury, Vots convinced Judge Lindsey Jones to sign an arrest warrant for Malcolm, who was subsequently arrested on Dec. 10, 2016. He spent the next three days in jail for a crime he did not commit but actually prevented.
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