A former Medtronic employee is suing the company and the Brooklyn Park Police Department in connection with a bomb threat made to the company early last year.
Chia Doua Yang, 61, says in the lawsuit that three Brooklyn Park police officers falsely imprisoned him "based on false factual allegations" made by two Medtronic employees, according to the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.
On Jan. 21 and 22, 2013, the Fridley-based company received two separate bomb threats by phone. Brooklyn Park police later "determined there were no explosives or problems."
A human resources employee at Medtronic met with the officers and "brought up [Yang's] name as a possible suspect" because he had recently been "discharged due to disability," the suit states.
At first, the employee couldn't identify Yang's voice in the recorded bomb threat. She then "abruptly changed her mind and claimed that the caller must be [Yang]." Another Medtronic employee also listened to the recorded bomb threat and claimed that it was Yang.
Yang was then arrested during a "search without warrant and probable cause," the suit says.
He spent a night in jail before police viewed surveillance video of the call and determined that he had not made the threats, according to the suit. Pao Yang, Chia Doua Yang's attorney, said he believes his client's arrest despite police knowing about the video constitutes "the shadiest police work."
Pao Yang said his client then spent an additional night in custody because another police officer told the arresting officers that Chia Doua Yang "could be related to the person who made the [bomb threats]."
