Tresa Baldas

Detroit Free Press

Over and over again, the computer rejected their names — and automatically cut off their food stamps.

Walter Barry, a 46-year-old mentally disabled Detroit man who lives with his mother, lost his public assistance when his name turned up in a fugitive database: His brother had stolen his name and used it as an alias when he was arrested about 25 years ago.

Identity theft victim Donitha Copeland, a onetime homeless woman, lost her food benefits when her name showed up in the same database: There was an outstanding warrant for her arrest for writing bad checks in Kalamazoo, though she had never been there.

Kenneth Anderson, a disabled 58-year-old man who requires oxygen 24 hours a day, lost his food assistance, too, because of an arrest warrant involving a nephew — not him.

It's these kinds of stories that prompted the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals this week to strike down Michigan's fugitive-felon policy, which, in three years, has automatically cut off public assistance to 20,000 people whose names popped up in a computer database that identified them as felons.

It works like this:

The state has one list of all people receiving public assistance, and another list of people facing outstanding felony arrest warrants. If someone's name shows up on both lists, their public assistance benefits are automatically cut off.

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But as Barry's case showed, the computer isn't always right and deserving individuals wind up losing public aid, the court noted.

"His story ... well illustrates the difficulties that the bare-bones Michigan system can produce," the 6th Circuit wrote in its 12-page opinion, which upheld a lower court ruling that had declared Michigan's policy as unconstitutional.

At issue in the case is the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps, which bans people from receiving benefits who have fled prosecution for a felony. In an effort to catch such scofflaws, the State of Michigan in 2013 developed an automated program that compares the list of public-assistance recipients with a list of outstanding felony warrants maintained by the law enforcement information network.

In 2015, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy struck down the state's database, concluding it wrongfully denied plaintiffs of their right to food aid because they were neither actively fleeing or avoiding prosecution for a felony.

The 6th Circuit agreed.

"The district court correctly declared invalid the Michigan fugitive-felon policy and the portions of Michigan statutes on which the policy was based," the 6th Circuit wrote.

American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Miriam Aukerman, who challenged the policy, along with the Center for Civil Justice, hailed the ruling as a big win for the thousands of individuals who automatically lost their benefits for crimes they may have had nothing to do with.

"Computers make mistakes. None of us want to have our lives ruled by some computer algorithm. What's important here is the state can't cut corners anymore. It can't automatically cut off people from desperately needed assistance," Aukerman said.

Barry's case, Aukerman noted, was especially troublesome.

"He keeps proving that he's entitled to these benefits and the computer keeps spitting out this rejection," she said. "And his case is not an exception. It's the rule."

Attorneys representing the state were not available for comment.

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The lawsuit, which was filed in 2013, involved four plaintiffs who each experienced administrative nightmares in trying to get their public assistance back, all because of mix-ups in the state's automated system. Here, according to court records, are their stories:

The lead plaintiff is Walter Barry, a mentally disabled man who lives in Detroit with his mother, Elaine Barry. In 2012, he was awarded $186 per month in food assistance, but later that year he learned that his benefits would be cut because of a "criminal justice disqualification."

His mother requested a hearing with state authorities and took Barry to the Detroit Police Department, where his fingerprints were taken. Police found he had no criminal history. An administrative law judge quickly reinstated Barry's benefits.

Five months later, the same problem occurred. Barry received notice that his benefits would be terminated because of a criminal issue. In May 2013, a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services employee said she had "personally verified" through a LEIN check that Walter had an outstanding felony arrest warrant dating to 1989 by the Detroit police. It turned out that the outstanding warrant at issue was really for Barry's brother, who had stolen Barry's name and used it an alias when he was arrested about 25 years earlier.

The problem didn't go away, however. The warrant kept showing up in Barry's name, even though it wasn't him. His mother made repeat visits to the police station. Barry's fingerprints were taken over and over again. A police officer gave four statements that Barry had no criminal history. But his name kept turning up in the state's system as a fugitive who was not entitled to food benefits.

Donitha Copeland of Wayne County had a similar story. In September 2012, she qualified for $200 of food assistance per month. Two months later, she became a victim of identity theft and filed a police report in Detroit. The next month came the notice: Her public benefits would be cut because of a criminal issue. Copeland would eventually learn that there was a warrant for her arrest Kalamazoo on a charge of bad checks, even though she had never been to Kalamazoo. She ended up traveling to Kalamazoo, turning herself in and spending eight hours in jail before finally being cleared of any wrongdoing after proving it wasn't her writing the bad checks.

Plaintiff Kenneth Anderson is a 54-year-old disabled man who requires oxygen 24 hours a day and can't walk unassisted. He received $200 in food assistance per month, but his case was closed in mid-2012 for failure to provide paperwork. When he reapplied in December 2012, his application was denied because of a purported criminal matter. His name had shown up in the state's database, which showed there was an outstanding felony warrant issued for him in January 2013. It involved a drug case from 2009 that involved his nephew. Anderson was never arrested, nor was he ever told there was a warrant for his arrest. He is now receiving food assistance.

The state, however, can no longer deny people like Anderson, Copeland and Barry assistance just because their names turn up in a database. A federal court issued an injunction to block the practice; the 6th Circuit upheld it.

Aukerman said she understands the state's need to make sure that real fugitives and criminals aren't receiving public assistance, as federal law prohibits. But the old system had to go.

"There are about 20,000 people who were cut off from assistance under this policy, without anyone ever looking to see if they were properly disqualified," Aukerman said. "It's really about fairness ... you can’t cut corners. You can’t just do this by computer ... they can’t automatically cut people off."

Contact Tresa Baldas: tbaldas@freepress.com