Lawsuit: Pembroke Gardens Mall Cop 'Negligence' Sends Man to Rikers

Carlos Alvarado had barely stepped off his flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport when New York City Police Department officers stopped him and put him in handcuffs. He had planned to return home to his family in Queens following a trip to Colombia, but instead of warm hugs and broad smiles, Alvarado spent the next 17 days in a cell at the notorious Rikers Island.

In early May, Alvarado sued both Hollister and Banana Republic for $50,000, citing his inability to work during his 17-day Rikers stint, indignities including "pushing, jostling, handcuffing, leg shackling, humiliation, intimidation by other inmates, and loss of privacy," plus his bond and attorneys' fees.

Pembroke Pines Police Department deputies accused the then 49-year-old of theft at the Banana Republic and Hollister stores in Pembroke Lakes Mall. But Alvarado had never set foot inside the stores, his attorney Lance Garrett tells New Times.

A grand jury approved two grand theft charges: a first-degree felony for the Hollister accusation and a second-degree felony for Banana Republic's claim, according to arrest affidavits.

Even after his time in jail, Alvarado spent months battling criminal charges — all because he shared a name with the person who had rented the getaway car used by the actual thief, according to a civil lawsuit filed in Broward County's 17th Judicial Circuit Court.

The issue began in January 2023 with a string of store thefts. In March 2023, a pair of loss-prevention employees at the stores told investigators they saw the suspected thief enter a car that police found to be a rental under the name Carlos Alvarado Rivera.

So Pembroke Pines police found a man named Carlos Eduardo Alvarado (not Carlos Alvarado Rivera) living in New York City, showed mall employees what was likely a driver's license photo of him in a lineup, and heard what they needed to hear for an arrest warrant, Lance Garrett, Alvarado's attorney in his civil case against the retail stores, tells New Times.

Banana Republic's loss-prevention team accused Alvarado of using a polka-dotted bag to steal more than $7,200 in merchandise during three different trips to the store in January and February 2023, according to an arrest affidavit. Hollister employees accused Alvarado of stealing $3,200 in inventory through five trips in and out of the store in early February 2023, and $1,300 in merchandise ten days later, according to another affidavit.

Neither Banana Republic nor Hollister representatives responded to New Times' requests for comment.

Prosecutors dropped all charges in August 2024 after Alvarado's defense attorney convinced them that the police got the wrong guy, Alvarado's attorneys tell New Times.

Alvarado wouldn't have been able to proceed with his civil lawsuit without a dismissal from the related criminal charges, his criminal attorney, Gabriela Novo, tells New Times. "I kept on telling the prosecutors, 'You have the wrong guy,' but they were adamant," Novo says.

The criminal charges immediately put Alvarado, a delivery driver, out of work for months. Novo says he's suing in part to recoup some of the wages he missed out on as a delivery driver in New York City.

"There's no doubt they screwed up. I think these guys were negligent trying to get the bad guy," Garrett says. "They never even saw the guy in person; they only saw him in surveillance footage."

The mall employees likely had never seen Alvarado, because he has only been to Miami a few times and has never visited Pembroke Pines Mall, Garrett says.

"The difference was clear," Garrett says.

Here's a cleaner, more concise version:

The man in the surveillance video has no visible tattoos, while Alvarado has a full sleeve. Unlike Alvarado, who has a full head of hair, he appears to be balding in spots and looks several decades younger than the 51-year-old Queens resident.