A bail bond agency responds to accusations of assault and that they tried to arrest the wrong person

DETROIT, Mich. (WXYZ) - We have an update to a story we first brought you on Wednesday night over a case of mistaken identity.

19-year-old George McCurdy suffered injuries after he says he was beat up by men from you walk bail bond agency in Detroit.  He said they mistook him for his 21-year-old cousin.  Both men have ‘George’ in their name.  The owner of the agency spoke with 7 Action News Reporter Julie Banovic this evening.  Justin butler says his men did not mistake George for his cousin but believes George thought they were there for him because he is probation for assaulting a police officer last year.  Butler said George assaulted the man from the agency after the guy tried to get George to come out of a hiding spot.

“We believe he overheard that we were looking for George and he believed we were there looking for him.  And that’s what led him to hide in the basement and then respond when we located him,” said Butler.

Butler said McCurdy responded by punching the guy from the agency in the side of the face and the left shoulder.  They filed a police report today for assault and battery.  McCurdy’s family said they are also pressing charges.

“The individual who was doing the search had bruises on the back of his head and his neck where he was punched several times,” said Butler.  “The other individual didn’t have any wounds or any injuries.”

Butler said the uncle told them that the person they were looking for was not at the house.  When the men heard someone else walking around in the house they continued to ask the uncle to let them in the home and they said the uncle let them in.  When the men checked the basement they did not know who was down there and asked the person who ended up being George, to come out in plain view    

“It’s not uncommon for us when we are doing a search of a residence to encounter heightened and aggressive tempers and our goal is really only in finding the fugitive and returning them to the court,” said Butler.  “We typically try to let situations cool down and go away.  If there is no serious injury and there’s no reason to believe the anger will continue, then our attitude is we understand how they could be upset by our being there,” said Butler.

Butler’s agency filed a police report today for assault and battery against McCurdy.  Butler said they decided to file the report after McCurdy’s family called police and contacted 7 Action News.

“He’s making some pretty serious accusations against us, that we kicked in the door and we beat someone up at random that we thought he was the wrong guy and that’s not what happened in our opinion,” said Butler.  “We felt that it was important that if our opinion as going to be taken as credible we needed to file a police report.”

McCurdy’s family tells 7 Action News they are also pressing charges.