Trigger Warning: This article mentions details about drug overdose and death.
Life is often unfair under many circumstances, and that is why we seek the help of the law to make it fair and uphold justice. In a recent case, a pregnant Vermont woman was wrongfully arrested and jailed for a fatal drug crime she did not commit — all because a police officer allegedly wrote down the wrong date of birth on an arrest warrant, according to a new federal lawsuit.
The woman, Alicia M. Kelley, is now suing Brattleboro Police Lieutenant Greg Eaton, who she claims mishandled key identification details when filing the warrant back in 2019. The warrant was not acted on until three years later, in 2022, leading to her traumatic arrest while pregnant, even though the real suspect remains at large.
(Image Credits: Turning Point USA).
As per the Atlanta Black Star, the lawsuit filed June 30 by attorney Brian Marsicovetere, Eaton obtained a warrant for Kelley’s arrest in connection with a 2018 heroin sale that led to the overdose death of Brianna Radcliffe, a Dunkin’ Donuts employee. CCTV footage from the store revealed that the suspect was identified as Alicia M. Kelley. However, despite having access to official databases, DMV photos, corrections records, and social media, Eaton allegedly failed to verify key identifiers.
He mixed up the birthdates of the suspects after he got confused and listed the wrong Alicia M. Kelley in the warrant, who was a woman with the same name but a different birthdate. The real suspect was born on May 16, 1988. The woman who was wrongly arrested, Alicia M. Kelley, was born on October 25, 1988.
The small yet significant blunder led to the arrest of innocent Kelley, heavily pregnant at the time, at her home in North Troy in July 2022. Greg Eaton reportedly made no efforts to check to compare photos, or confirm the birthdate before submitting the warrant. The lawsuit now accused him of violating Kelley’s Fourth Amendment rights. Alas, pregnant Kelly had to suffer unnecessarily and spend a night in jail with her bail set at $25,000.
It’s really sad and frustrating to know that only after Kelley had been jailed and charged did prosecutors realise the confusion in the birthdates. The charges were immediately dropped, and the state moved to amend the warrant with the correct information for the actual suspect, who still has not been apprehended.
A lawsuit was filed against a Brattleboro police detective alleging he filed the wrong date of birth in a warrant, leading to the arrest and imprisonment of an innocent pregnant woman.https://t.co/kphc4editn
— VTDigger (@vtdigger) July 7, 2025
Meanwhile, even after realizing the mistake, Eaton waited nearly a year to request a warrant, finally applying in May 2019. The reason for the delay remains unclear. It took another three years before the mistaken arrest was carried out by the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office in 2022. It all seemed fishy, even though Alicia M. Kelley was living over two hours away from Brattleboro in a different county.
The lawsuit also mentioned that Officer Greg Eaton’s actions amounted to “willful or reckless conduct” and that “no reasonable officer” would have acted similarly under the circumstances. Moreover, besides arresting Kelly in front of two minor kids and parents, the Orleans County Sheriff’s Office shared a social media post detailing the arrest, a move that the lawsuit claims publicly humiliated Kelley within her community.
As the real Alicia M. Kelley, who happens to be the real suspect in the drug overdose death of Brianna Radcliffe, remains wanted at the time of writing this story, innocent Kelly’s lawsuit seeks damages for unwanted emotional harm, financial exploitation and defamation. There are many cases like these in America where an innocent person has suffered the most, all because of incompetence, the law’s favoritism and instances of police brutality.
It’s said that a person cannot fully control what happens to them in life, but they can certainly control how they react to the situation and deal with it in the best possible manner, seeking the right support around them. So all we can say to the innocent mother who took a bold step is, Kudos, Mamma! You got this!
