A man Tyrone Lamont Allen is walking away from a case with no prison time after Portland police reportedly manipulated the man’s mugshot to remove his tattoos and make him appear closer in resemblance to a robbery suspect.
Previously, Allen pleaded guilty to four credit union and bank heists that went down in less than a week in April 2017. A year after the arrest of Allen in 2017, his lawyer Mark Ahlemeyer discovered that Portland police used an out-of-the-norm investigative technique against the suspect. While on the witness stand, a police forensic criminalist admitted to painting over the face tattoos Allen has using photoshop before, including his face in a photo line-up shown to witnesses in each robbery.
It was noted that none of the tellers actually saw Allen’s face or the man who robbed them, and several of the tellers actually picked the suspect’s photo. Police went on to say they changed Allen’s photo so the face tats wouldn’t be “too distracting for witnesses.” Because of that, Allen’s lawyer argued the tampered photo let police “rig the outcome” to lock up Allen. Along with that, the police didn’t disclose that they altered the photo.
Allen and his lawyer reportedly entered a guilty plea in April that asked for time-served, which is five months and 21 days for the man, along with three years supervision. It was noted that Allen was granted a release in 2018 pending his trial and was helping at-risk youth to prevent them from going down the same path he did.
source: Oregon Live
