Black Woman Wrongfully Arrested for Charges Meant for White Woman With the Same Name

Nationwide — Nickie Sledge, a 49-year-old African American girl from Canton, Georgia, says she was wrongfully arrested and jailed after police mistook her for a White girl from Kentucky who has the identical identify. Her authorized staff plans to sue the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Workplace, saying the error left her humiliated and traumatized.

Sledge was arrested on December 21, 2024, whereas spending time along with her grandson. In accordance with 11Alive, officers charged her with abusing and neglecting a disabled or aged particular person — offenses that her attorneys say had been meant for 43-year-old Nikki Sledge of Kentucky.

Courtroom data present the actual suspects had been tied to a Kentucky handle. The sufferer within the case was the grandfather of the Kentucky girl’s husband, and a witness instructed investigators that the couple had already left Georgia and had been residing in Kentucky.

Regardless of these particulars, Sledge was arrested in Georgia, strip-searched, and booked into Rockdale County Jail. She was later transferred to the Cherokee County Detention Middle, the place she was searched once more and held for 3 days earlier than being launched.

Her lawyer, Harry Daniels, mentioned all costs had been dismissed in February 2025. He described the expertise as a “nightmare” that left Sledge’s mugshot circulating on-line though she had no prison report.

“It is a individual that has no prison report,” Daniels mentioned. “She’s a hard-working taxpaying citizen, a law-abiding citizen, and rapidly, on day, comfortable day, spending time along with your grandchild you get arrested, you get taken away, ripped. Your freedom of liberty is taken away, all as a result of someone didn’t do their job.”

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned they solely realized of the state of affairs by media experiences. Officers said that they had not obtained any communication from Sledge or her lawyer however had been “actively reviewing the state of affairs to grasp what occurred.”