Wrongly Convicted Man Sues Hertz Over Alibi Documents
After being locked up for almost five years for a crime that he didn’t commit, a Michigan man is suing Hertz over a rental car receipt that verified his alibi.
Hertz said it was unable to locate the original rental record when it was requested in 2015, but advances in data search subsequently allowed Hertz to locate and return the rental record in 2018.
Image via Pixabay/Okan Caliskan.
After serving a prison term for nearly five years, Herbert Alford was exonerated in 2020. He was falsely convicted of Michael Adams’ murder in 2016, according to a report by WLNS-TV 6 in Michigan.
Alford is suing Hertz Corp. for allegedly refusing to turn over a rental car receipt that corroborated his alibi.
According to the report, it took several years and multiple court orders and subpoenas for Hertz to turn over this receipt. The receipt shows that Alford used his credit card to rent a car at Lansing Airport’s Hertz location on Oct. 18, 2011 at 3 p.m. This was six minutes before Adams was shot and killed, according to the report.
Hertz issued a statement to media outlets saying that the company was unable to find the original rental record when it was requested in 2015, though continued good faith efforts to locate it. The statement said that advances in data search subsequently allowed Hertz to locate the rental record in 2018, upon which the company promptly provided.
Alford is seeking compensation in excess of $25,000, according to the complaint.
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