Cops used Photoshop to alter a defendant's photo to make him look more like a robbery suspect

[WhiskeyGrinder]

Portland police used Photoshop to alter a defendant's photo to make him look more like a robbery suspect. Now, he'll be released from jail

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/07/the-case-of-the-mugshot-with-the-missing-tattoos-concludes-on-hopeful-note-its-like-hitting-the-lottery.html

More than a year after Allen’s arrest in May 2017, his defense lawyer Mark Ahlemeyer discovered that Portland police had used an unusual investigative technique against Allen.

Ahlemeyer then moved to suppress the evidence.

On the witness stand, a police forensic criminalist admitted he had “painted over the tattoos” on Allen’s face using Photoshop before including the mugshot in a photo line-up that detectives showed to witnesses in each of the bank robberies.

None of the tellers had reported seeing tattoos on the face of the man who robbed them. Several of the tellers picked out Allen’s photo.

[RainCaster]

1. That's messed up

That should be very illegal, IMO.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

3. Legality doesn't mean much to cops.

[Iggo]

2. They got caught.

How many didn’t?

[FakeNoose]

4. This story is a little confusing

Did the cops get the wrong guy, and make the photo look like the perp with tattoos? Or did they get the right guy, and change the photo because it doesn't show the tattoos that he really has?

Maybe I'm wrong, but it's obvious the cops were negligent and what they did was illegal.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. No, they removed the tattoos from his photo

The witnesses never described any face tattoos, but they guy they arrested had some very obvious ones. So they altered his photo so that it had no tattoos, then stuck it in a bunch of photos, and some of the witnesses said that was the robber.

Not so much 'negligent' as 'malicious'. There's good reason to believe he's innocent.

[Iggo]

6. If there were any justice in this world...

...every cop, criminalist, and prosecutor who knew about this would have to do the time they tried to hang on Mr. Allen.

But there ain't.