Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office Issues Apology for Issuing Incorrect Warrant

Published February 15, 2022

Lake Charles, LA – Ricardo L. Estevez, 53, of Weston, Florida, was wrongfully arrested in Broward County, Florida, on Monday, February 7, 2022, after a Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office detective issued an incorrect warrant for his arrest after he was mistakenly identified as a suspect in a contractor fraud case.

Regarding the arrest, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso said “Although I know an apology will not fix this issue, I am sincerely sorry this happed to Mr. Estevez. He was arrested for a crime in Louisiana in which he had no part of. Once we learned this occurred we made every effort to get him out of jail as quickly as possible…A mistake like this should not happen, we are professionals and it is our responsibility to do our due diligence to check and make sure this type of information is correct prior to issuing a warrant. We are looking at this internally to see how this mistake was made and what changes need to take place to ensure this does not occur again.”

CPSO detectives are currently conducting further investigation into the contractor fraud case to identify and issue a warrant for the correct suspect.