Wrongful arrest & emotional distress lawsuit

Last year on September 10, Hans Joachim Kiel, a dual citizen of Samoa and the U.S., was arrested in Branson, Missouri. He was charged with one count of falsely and willfully representing himself to be a U.S. citizen and one count of willfully and knowingly using and attempting to use a U.S. passport. [Source]

Just in case you missed that, a U.S. citizen got arrested for impersonating a citizen and using a U.S. passport to try and prove it.

Wow.

Kiel, a Samoan diplomat and veteran of the U.S. Air Force, was jailed for nine days and then ordered to stay in Missouri for three months while charges were pending.

Now, in the great American tradition, he's suing for "emotional distress."

While I can understand the gentleman's outrage, and shake my head at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers' incompetency, I think Keil's attorney is taking his experience a bit too far.

"He has been very badly emotionally scarred as a result of this treatment.... The tragedy in all of this is that he was so badly scarred, he is terrified to return to the U.S. He is afraid he is going to be arrested again."

This is not to day he's *SO* scared he definitely won't ever come back, though.

"Obviously he is going to need to come back at some point and try to deal with psychological issues." [Source]

Right.