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Read Full BioFurther details of a man wrongfully arrested at a casino in Reno, Nevada, have emerged after the Reno Police Department released records of the arrest. Jason Killinger is now suing the arresting officer, Richard Jager, claiming he suffered injuries while in custody. The arrest was due to the casino’s facial recognition software misidentifying Killinger as a previous trespasser.
In September 2023, Killinger entered the Peppermill Casino in Reno, Nevada. He was promptly apprehended by security personnel, who claimed he had been barred from the casino for previously trespassing.
Security staff identified him as Michael Ellis. He protested. He showed his driver’s license, which proved he was indeed Jason James Killinger. The security staff did not believe him. They detained him and called the police.
Officer Put Faith in Facial Recognition
Officer Jager arrived at the property, and Killinger again showed his driver’s license, along with a payslip from UPS, where he worked as a truck driver. He also showed his vehicle registration. All the documents matched his description. Jager handcuffed Killinger and took him to the station.
In his lawsuit against the officer, Killnger says Jager accused him of having a DMV hook-up to fabricate the documents. In his police report, Jager wrote that Killinger had “conflicting identification” despite all his IDs indicating that he was Jason Killinger. Jager added that “he lacked satisfactory evidence to reasonably assure me that he was who he claimed to be”.
Killinger was detained for 11 hours before fingerprints eventually conclusively proved he was Jason Killinger. Since his release, he has settled a claim with the Peppermill Casino, but his lawsuit against Jager remains active.
It is not the first time casino security has been accused of wrongdoing. The family of a man shot dead at the Aliante Casino in Las Vegas is suing the casino for negligence. In that case, the casino’s CCTV footage showed security had twice approached the murderer, but he was not apprehended and went on to shoot the victim.
In Killinger’s case, security was all too eager to place him in detention. Security had issued Ellis a six-month ban for sleeping on the premises in March 2023.
His ban was due to expire on September 26, but the security staff and police insisted on arresting a man who looked like Ellis on September 17. Killinger was not doing anything to raise suspicion at the time of his apprehension.
In an attempt to take advantage of casino security failures, one man dressed as security to commit a robbery at the Summerline casino last month.
Images Show Facial Recognition Failures
While Ellis and Killinger bear a resemblance, images released by the Reno Police clearly show differences. The two men’s driver’s licenses show that Killinger has blue eyes, while Ellis has hazel eyes. In his report, Jager writes that these are “by their very nature similar
eye colors and are dependent upon lighting.”
Ellis also has a noticeably smaller nose and bigger ears. Side by side, it seems fairly obvious that they are not the same person. The facial recognition software was unable to detect the differences.
The arresting officer may have noticed Ellis is 5’9″ compared to Killinger at 6’1″. He was willing to trust the casino’s technology more than his own judgment, however.
Killinger also alleges that he failed to utilize the police’s own technology, omitting the result of the fingerprint exoneration from his report. His lawsuit argues Jager’s actions violated his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process.
He is seeking compensatory, special, and punitive damages, but the lawsuit does not specify amounts. The case is expected to go to trial next year.
