A Salinas woman’s name ended up in court records by mistake. Now she’s suing.

It was 7:23pm on a Thursday night in October 2021 when a Marina police officer was dispatched to a report of a possibly intoxicated woman loitering at Jack in the Box. According to a police report, the woman had been sitting at a table with her head down, seemingly asleep, for an hour-and-a-half. She smelled of alcohol, and her eyes were bloodshot, according to the police report. “During questioning, the female was asked what her name was, but she would not respond, appearing confused and staring at me with a gaze,” Officer Ryan Parra wrote. Eventually police made out that her first name was “Sofia.” She couldn’t remember her birthday or where she lived; her pants appeared to be soiled. One officer found an empty bottle of vodka.

The woman was arrested for public intoxication and transported to Monterey County Jail. There, a deputy claimed to recognize Sofia, and to know her identity – Sofia Ann Cortez was booked in the jail.

Only the woman who was booked was not Sofia Ann Cortez. And now the real Sophia Cortez – who received a warrant for her arrest, and went through a months-long battle to remove her name from Monterey County’s criminal justice system – wants justice.

“I am seeking damages for slandering my name and for humiliation. That took a toll,” Cortez says.

She filed a claim against the county that was denied in May; she now plans to sue, seeking damages in an amount to be determined.

A supplemental police report lays out some of what appears to have happened, but there are some holes. For example: The booking photo from the incident had been “removed by jail staff for unknown reasons.” (Officials from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office, which manages the jail, declined to comment for this story due to pending litigation.) Marina police examined body camera footage showing that the woman arrested – whose first name is Sylvia – was definitely not Sophia Cortez.

“Based on this latest information, I request the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office remove the arrest and any outstanding warrants under the name Sofia Cortez on 10/21/21,” Parra wrote in the supplemental report on Dec. 31, 2021.

It wasn’t until four months later that the case finally disappeared.

Cortez works for the county and has a few side hustles – designing Christian-themed clothing, distributing Herbalife products and running both a tax prep and credit repair business. “My business took a hit,” she says. “At this point, sorry isn’t good enough.”