[Software] Apple sued in nightmare case involving teen wrongly accused of shoplifting, driver's permit used by impostor, and unreliable facial-rec tech.

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Apple and its security contractor Security Industry Specialists (SIS) were sued on Friday in Massachusetts as part of a multijurisdictional defamation and malicious prosecution complaint brought on behalf of Ousmane Bah, a New York resident misidentified as a shoplifter multiple times in 2018 and 2019.

The lawsuit contends that Apple and SIS exhibited reckless disregard for the truth by misidentifying Bah as the perpetrator of multiple shoplifting crimes at iStores, leading to his unjustified arrest and to his defamation.

The filing [PDF] in US District Court in Massachusetts aims to revive charges relevant to events in Boston that were excluded from related ongoing litigation in New York. A third related case is being heard in New Jersey.

Apple and SIS have a qualified law enforcement privilege that allows them to err in store security-related accusations and not be sued for it. However, if they exhibit "reckless disregard for the truth" [PDF] – ignoring obvious facts, for example, they lose that privilege.

Among the more startling allegations in the case is that an SIS VP falsely claimed that no SIS employee ever identified Bah to the NYPD or to Apple. The complaint points to an exhibit that's been submitted as evidence, an email from an SIS employee to an NYPD detective does in fact identify Bah as a shoplifter.

The lawsuit also claims that Apple and SIS selectively deleted video evidence that would have exposed them to potential criminal and civil liability for filing false complaints with the police.

In addition, it asserts Bah's apprehension was in part due to the application of unreliable facial-recognition technology in the shoplifting incidents in New York.

Bah, who is Black, obtained a New York State temporary learner driver's permit in March 2018 at the age of 17, when he was an honors student at Bronx Latin Academy, a New York City high school. The document included his height, weight, date of birth, and eye color, but no photograph.

According to the Massachusetts court filing, he had lost the temporary permit by May that year, but had obtained a permanent laminated copy that included his picture.

ID or not ID

In Greenwich, Connecticut in April 2018, Apple allegedly detained an individual for stealing store merchandise and identified the individual as Ousmane Bah based on the examination of the temporary learner's permit he is said to have had on him – this despite the fact that the ID says, "This temporary document is not to be used for identification purposes."

The complaint states that the person detained was not Bah, who is 5'7" but a 6'1" impostor using the lost temporary learner's permit. Nonetheless, Apple personnel are said to have retained some video surveillance evidence and published the record with the name "Ousmane Bah" through an online system to make it available to SIS and Apple Stores in the Northeastern US.

On May 24, 2018, SIS, acting in a security capacity for Apple, apprehended and handcuffed the impostor for allegedly stealing merchandise from a Parmus, New Jersey Apple Store. Again, it's claimed the impostor was carrying Bah's lost learner's permit and identified himself as such to authorities or tried to do so – the detained individual is said to have misspelled his stolen name as "Ousama Bah" before correcting the spelling.

Yet the Paramus Police Department apparently did not make any further effort to verify the suspect's identity, content to accept the identification provided by the SIS employee who apprehended the shoplifter. It's also claimed SIS told authorities it had video evidence.

"Without probable cause, SIS began linking prior thefts in the region involving the impostor to the Plaintiff," the complaint says, with SIS representing to police that video of these other thefts, such as one at the Short Hills Apple Store near Millburn, NJ on May 5, 2018.

At this point, it's alleged that SIS, on behalf of Apple, distributed a "Be on the Lookout" (BOLO) notice with the impostor's image but the name "Ousmane Bah" as a "known shoplifter." This is said to have been sent not only to Apple Stores but to police departments in the region.

Then there was the May 31, 2018 theft of a dozen Apple Pencils from an Apple Store in Boston. It's claimed that an SIS employee in his police report accused Ousmane Bah – who was not in Massachusetts at the time – of the thefts and said there was video to back that up.