LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Louisville man spent months in jail after being wrongly arrested for a violent crime because he shared the same name as the suspect, drawing scrutiny from the city’s Office of Inspector General.
On Jan. 15, 2023, Louisville Metro Police responded to a ShotSpotter alert during a domestic violence incident on East Jacob Street. The victim described a man named “Mikey … Michael Anderson,” a common name, and said he hit her and fired a gun. Officers later misidentified the suspect, arresting a different Michael Anderson nearly two years later, on Christmas Eve 2024.
Michael Anderson insisted police had the wrong man from the start. His attorney, Sara Collins, said he was arrested in front of his children and spent months in jail before being placed on home incarceration. Court records later confirmed that the actual suspect had a much lighter skin tone than Anderson.
The inspector general’s report found that Detective Lawrence Farmer inadvertently used information from another Michael Anderson while filing the criminal complaint. The case was dismissed in May 2025.
Anderson, a father of eight, said the ordeal left him “mad, still frustrated (and) still confused” and worried that his name had been publicly tarnished. He plans to sue, and the inspector general has requested that LMPD review all open warrants obtained by Detective Farmer.
Collins criticized broader problems in the Domestic Violence Unit, including staffing cuts from 15 detectives in 2015 to just four in 2025, amid rising domestic violence reports and homicides. LMPD stated its internal investigation is ongoing and declined further comment.
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