A New York man has filed a lawsuit over his mistaken-identity arrest at Kennedy International Airport as he returned from a vacation in St. Croix.

Wayne Richards spent almost a week behind bars in January 2003, most of the time on a prison barge moored off The Bronx.

In court papers, Richards said he was held even though a photograph of a man wanted in Bergen County did not look like him. He was only released when Bergen County police took him to Hackensack, fingerprinted him and found that his prints did not match those of the man wanted there for jumping bail, the New York Post reported. The suit names the city of New York, Bergen County police and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police as defendants.

"I just got out of vacation," Richards said. "To come back from the Virgin Islands and to wind up in this situation, it was really horrible."

Richards said that the man arrested in Bergen County, who was apparently using his name and Social Security number, had dreadlocks and a large scar on one arm. He has never worn his hair in dreadlocks and has no scar.

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