Wrong Man Jailed For Child Porn; Real Suspect Can't Be Charged

State police mixed Billy Dean Rowe up with Billy Joe Rowe
By Troy Baker and Ken Kolker, WOOD-TV
WWLP
Feb. 27, 2015

ALBION, Mich. (WOOD) — Billy Dean Rowe, who lives near Albion, Michigan is a meat cutter by trade and a married father of four who spent three nights in jail for child porn — a crime he didn’t commit.

“I was in the cell,” Rowe, 50, told Target 8. “I just laid in the bed all the time. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t do nothing. I just did a lot of praying.”

Billy Joe Rowe, 41, of Clio, who police say confessed to the child porn, never was charged and — because of mistakes made by Michigan State Police — never will be.

“I didn’t know nothing about it,” Billy Joe Rowe, 41, said when asked if he knew about the false arrest of the other Rowe.

So how is it that Michigan State Police confused two men with different middle names, who live 120 miles from each other and who are 9 years apart in age?

“It was crazy,” the falsely arrested Rowe said. “There was no way I would do something like that.”

Billy Dean Rowe and his wife have sued the state police. The state admitted making mistakes but claimed governmental immunity and asked the state Court of Appeals to dismiss the suit. The court denied that request earlier this month, sending the case back to Calhoun County Circuit Court.

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