Simi Valley man shares how it felt to be wrongfully arrested

Gary Allen Frost woke up to a loud noise at his Simi Valley home on Tuesday morning — and it wasn’t from his alarm clock.

Police were banging on his front door and yelling that he was under arrest.

Frost, 44, complied with officers and entered the police vehicle. On his way to county jail, he found out that officers were serving a warrant from Pennsylvania State Police on felony charges of forgery and identity theft in Pennsylvania and New York. The warrant included Frost’s full name, his date of birth and a photograph of the suspect.

    The only problem? Frost wasn’t the man in the photograph. He’d never even been to Pennsylvania. Yet by noon, he found himself in a holding cell waiting to be shipped across the country.

    From right, Gary Allen Frost and his wife, Tina Frost.

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    “They were like, ‘We know this is you,’ and I thought, ‘This guy is 15 to 20 years older,’” Frost said.

    Frost, a resident of Simi Valley since 2013 with his wife, Tina, was taken to Adventist Health Simi Valley for medical clearance prior to being processed in jail. He called the experience humiliating.

    “I worked there before,” Frost said of the hospital. “I’m getting seen by my old co-workers.” 

    When Frost arrived at county jail, he was booked on suspicion of being a wanted out-of-state fugitive. He was to be held without bail to await extradition to Pennsylvania.

    “I felt so low,” Frost said. “I’m getting punished for something I didn’t do.”

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    Meanwhile, Tina Frost was preparing for the legal battle to save her husband. She said she nearly spent $5,000 to retain a lawyer for the extradition hearing but was talked down at the last moment.

    “I was devastated. I knew it was not him, and they just did not care,” Frost said.

    While Frost was being processed into the jail, he told the booking deputy he was not the person listed in the warrant. The deputy warned Frost that if he was lying, he could incur additional charges, but Frost was adamant. He asked the deputy to check the photograph with the original warrant.

    Sure enough, the deputy realized Frost was not the man depicted in the photograph despite having his name and date of birth listed in the arrest warrant.

    “He said, ‘I can’t believe somebody picked you up on this picture,’” Frost said.

    Photos of the fugitive suspect wanted by Pennsylvania State Police provided to the Simi Valley Police Department.

    After paperwork was sent back and forth with Pennsylvania State Police to confirm Frost was not the wanted fugitive, he was released from jail at 11:37 p.m. Tuesday. He had spent more than 12 hours in police custody, and was relieved to be out but shaken up by the ordeal.

    “I’m really nonchalant, but after this happened, I’m still a bit anxious,” Frost said.

    Why did this happen?

    Simi Valley police issued a statement Wednesday afternoon saying they learned Frost was not the suspect wanted by Pennsylvania State Police, but rather one of the identity thief’s victims.

    “Acting on this warrant officers arrested Mr. Frost and booked him into the Ventura County Jail,” the statement read. “We were later informed by the Pennsylvania State Police that the warrant information was incorrect and that Mr. Frost was possibly the victim of identity theft.”

    Sgt. John Adamczyk of the Simi Valley Police Department maintained that his agency was not at fault for arresting Frost because officers were carrying out orders for another police entity. As such, no disciplinary action was planned for the officers involved in the incident.

    “Simi Valley P.D. made a valid arrest,” Adamczyk said.

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    On Friday afternoon, Simi Valley Police Chief David Livingstone provided a written account of the events that led to Frost’s arrest.

    Livingstone said Simi police first learned of the outstanding warrant on April 13 when Officer Bryan Sarfaty pulled Frost over for a traffic stop. Frost had a name, date of birth, height and hair color that matched the warrant, but Sarfaty ultimately decided to let Frost off with a traffic warning after not being able to compare him with a photograph of the suspect. During this interaction, Frost said he did not know of an arrest warrant in his name and that he was a recent victim of identity theft, according to Livingstone.

    Pennsylvania State Police reached out to Simi Valley police on Tuesday morning and provided photographs of the fugitive suspect. Officer Chad Van Dyke was assigned to follow up the case and compared Frost’s driver’s license photo to the ones from Pennsylvania, according to Livingstone. 

    “Ultimately, Officer Van Dyke made a decision based on the totality of the circumstances and acted in good faith in serving this warrant,” Livingstone said.

    Livingstone also said police are trained to be skeptical and use their judgment when determining which course of action to take.

    “What happened to Mr. Frost was an unfortunate mistake” and not based on a rush to judgment or haste, Livingstone said. “Wanted fugitives often falsify personal information, deny they are the subjects of the warrant, and even take steps to alter their appearance in order to avoid arrest.” 

    Cpl. Tyler Morse of the Pennsylvania State Police said the warrant had included the suspect’s photograph in addition to Frost’s name and date of birth. Trooper Ruben De Los Santos, the lead investigator of the fugitive case in Pennsylvania, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

    Tina Frost said that at the time of the arrest by Simi police, “It’s just like they wanted the win. They wanted to get that fugitive.”

    Livingstone said he had personally called Frost and left a message apologizing for the incident. 

    “We are human, and sometimes we make decisions that with the benefit of hindsight, we might not have made otherwise,” Livingstone said in his statement.

    Jeremy Childs covers crime and public safety issues for The Star. He can be reached at jeremy.childs@vcstar.com or 805-437-0208.