American Notes Crime

For most people, losing a wallet is an annoying inconvenience. For Terry Dean Rogan, it was shattering. Rogan, 27, misplaced his billfold in the Detroit area in January 1981. The following year a man, apparently using Rogan's identity cards, was linked to two murders and two robberies in Los Angeles, and a warrant in Rogan's name was entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer network. In the next 14 months, Rogan was arrested and jailed five times in Michigan and Texas, usually after police had first stopped him for traffic violations.

Last week Rogan, who lives in Saginaw, Mich., and says he has never been to California, sued the city of Los Angeles and two of its detectives for leaving his name in crime computers after he had repeatedly asked them to clear him. Rogan says the snafu caused him family problems and cost him a chance for a job. "I started drinking more," he says. "All I could think about was .38s at the side of my head."