Kalamazoo Shooter’s $10 million Lawsuit Against Uber A Hoax, Police Says

By Jenn Loro - 19 Mar '16 11:10AM

The online hype over the $10 million federal lawsuit filed by last month's Kalamazoo shooting suspect against Uber has been revealed as a hoax by the police in Thursday.

The said legal complaint against the San Francisco-based startup was reportedly filed Tuesday to the US District Court in Detroit in a handwritten note which allegedly holds the company responsible for causing emotional distress to John Dalton leading him to engage in a five-hour shooting rampage.

Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Paul Matyas revealed that he observed that something was not right as the news of the alleged lawsuit started to hit across many media outfits.

"I was suspicious last night when I saw the envelope the lawsuit came in was postmarked Philadelphia. We investigated and Dalton did not send it, did not authorize it and does not know who sent it. Further it was not his handwriting and it is not a jail envelope," Matyas said as quoted by NBC News.

The suspect is currently under police custody at Kalamazoo County Jail in Michigan, hundreds of miles away from Philadelphia. When Dalton was pressed for the handwritten fake complaint, he immediately dismissed the authenticity of the letter that was apparently done in his behalf.

"He didn't send it, didn't authorize it, and didn't know who did, either," Matyas further said adding that the handwriting on the document didn't match Dalton's penmanship as reported by Russia Today.

So, what does it take to file a fake lawsuit?

Apparently, there aren't any strict procedural rules that determine the veracity of a filed complaint. Basically, filing hoax lawsuit is pretty much a no-brainer if you have the time and money to spare.

"There is no one standing in the courthouse window verifying the facts before you file it. If you show up with your papers in the right format and pay the filing fee, the court doesn't have discretion to say we won't file it," said legal ethics expert David Cameron Carr as quoted in a CNET report.