{"id":108204,"date":"2026-04-09T09:28:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/truck-driver-wrongfully-arrested-in-peppermill-facial-recognition-blunder-says-thousands-detained-in-similar-cases\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T09:28:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:28:00","slug":"truck-driver-wrongfully-arrested-in-peppermill-facial-recognition-blunder-says-thousands-detained-in-similar-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/09\/truck-driver-wrongfully-arrested-in-peppermill-facial-recognition-blunder-says-thousands-detained-in-similar-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Truck Driver Wrongfully Arrested in Peppermill Facial Recognition Blunder Says \u2018Thousands\u2019 Detained in Similar Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n Posted on: April 8, 2026, 03:49h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n

\n Last updated on: April 8, 2026, 03:49h.\n <\/p>\n

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Lawyers for a man wrongly arrested<\/a> at Reno\u2019s Peppermill Casino after an AI facial recognition misidentification say poor training has led police to unlawfully detain \u201cthousands\u201d in similar cases.<\/p>\n

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Doppelgangers Jason Killinger, left, and Michael Ellis, whose image was used by casino facial-recognition software to trigger Killinger\u2019s arrest. The misidentification led to Killinger\u2019s wrongful detention at Reno\u2019s Peppermill Casino. (Image: Reno Police Department)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In September 2023, truck driver Jason Killinger was flagged as a \u201c100% match\u201d to an individual named Michael Ellis who had been banned from the venue months earlier for sleeping on the premises.<\/p>\n

Held for 11 Hours<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Killinger was detained by casino security and then arrested by Richard Jager<\/a>, a rookie officer from the Reno Police Department. Jager refused to believe Killinger was not who he said he was and accused him of obtaining a fraudulent ID when he provided evidence of his identity.<\/p>\n

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He was detained for 11 hours, and handcuffed for four, which resulted in bruises and shoulder pain, according to a lawsuit he later filed against Jager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The suit claims that even after his real identity was confirmed by a fingerprint check at Washoe County jail, Jager filed a police report saying that Killinger had given conflicting IDs to Peppermill security.<\/p>\n

City Added to Lawsuit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Last week, federal Judge Miranda Du granted a motion to add the City of Reno to the lawsuit as a defendant, because it had continued to pursue legal action against Killinger after he had been exonerated, and because it allegedly failed to properly train police officers on the limits of facial recognition technology at the time of Killinger\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

A new filing from Killinger\u2019s lawyers argues that Reno police have long been aware that facial recognition results aren\u2019t reliable enough to justify an arrest, but the department continued to follow that approach under Chief Kathryn Nance.<\/p>\n

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Jager\u2019s conduct was not a sporadic incident involving the wrongful actions of a rogue employee, but the result of a widespread custom and practice involving hundreds of municipal employees making thousands of arrests in the same manner over a period of years,\u201d the lawsuit claims.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Killinger argues that Jager\u2019s conduct infringed on his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights. He further alleges that Jager\u2019s reports left out evidence clearing him based on fingerprints and inaccurately portrayed him as uncooperative and using multiple identities.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, these omissions effectively amounted to fabricating evidence through concealment. The filing asks for compensatory, special, and punitive damages, though it does not state a specific amount.<\/p>\n

Killinger has already sued the Pepermill. That case was settled pre-trial for an unspecified sum.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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