Lawyer fees to fight mistaken identity arrest

Hi, my name is Fraderica Smith, and I am raising money to help my family pay for lawyers fees that will go towards helping my brother fight a criminal case of mistaken identity.

Imagine this: You are at work and your phone gets stolen. When you realize it has been stolen, you have to stop working and rush home to call your bank to have your debit card cancelled, as it was inside of the pouch on the back of your phone along with your Driver’s license. Meanwhile, the person who stole your phone is committing a crime, armed robbery to be exact, and they drop your debit card and driver’s license at the scene of thecrime. A little over 2 weeks later, you are pulled over and arrested for the crime that was committed by the person who stole your phone. Crazy right? Matter of fact almost unbelievable right? Well this is exactly what happened to my brother. 

On the morning of June 17, 2020, just 5 days after the Rayshard Brooks shooting here in Atlanta, I received a phone call from my mom, informing me that my brother, Fred, had been arrested. My heart immediately sank, as I was already on edge from the emotions surrounding the Rayshard Brooks case among all of the other racial injustices taking place at that time, plus the stress of the pandemic. So hearing this news literally shook me to my core.

Through her tears, my mother explained how my brother had been on his way to play basketball when he was pulled over by 5 law enforcement vehicles. Officers approached him with guns drawn, forced him on the ground, and roughly arrested him without giving him much information about why he was being arrested. After asking multiple times why he was being arrested, one of the officers said he had a warrant for his arrest for an armed robbery charge. If you know my brother, then you know how absurd it is that he would even be accused of such a thing. The arresting officers would not share any additional details with my brother and he was not even given the opportunity to discuss the accusation being made against him. They immediately took him to Dekalb County Jail, and because of Covid-19, restrictions didn’t allow for us to go down to the jail to find out any information and we didn’t hear from my brother for over 24 hours. I can’t describe to you the fear that we were filled with, not knowing if he was okay, thinking that my little brother was going to become a victim of police brutality as well.

It took us (and my brother) over 48 hours to find out what exactly my brother was being accused of and the details surrounding the incident. He proceeded to spend the next 2 weeks in jail, in a 23 hour lockdown, due to covid, because of the delays in the bond process because of court and office closures as a result of the pandemic.

My brother was falsely identified and as a result, had to endure a terrible experienced being wrongly incarcerated and charged for a crime he didn’t commit, during a pandemic. Having to miss work for 2 weeks because of this. And worst of all, being forced to deal with the financial burdens of retaining counsel to help fight and prove his innocence.

Fred is one of the hardest working people I know. He is a self-employed landscaper and has been working extremely hard to build his business. He is a very mild mannered young man, and doesn’t have a violent or criminal bone in his body. He is a former Division I and professional athlete with strong morals and a loving spirit.

My family and I want to do everything we can to support him during this time as he works to rebuild from the financial hit his business took from being incarcerated for two weeks and having to pay for representation to fight his case. Many people have reached out, wanting to help in anyway they can, so I wanted to create this GoFundMe for Fred, as the biggest need right now is helping to pay for the lawyer fees. Any donations that you are able to make would be hugely appreciated! Thank you!

And feel free to leave positive & support words of encouragement that I can pass along to Fred. This has been a traumatizing experience for him and he could mentally use the love and support.❤️