In this case, the ACLU represented Alson Tom, a 23 year old man who was stopped for speeding, and then informed that there was a bench warrant out for this arrest. Tom arrested by a Town of Hillsborough, CA police officer, and spent a night in jail, with bail set at $500. In fact, he had been arrested as a result of a computer error in the San Francisco Police Department database (the Police Information Network, or P.I.N. System), which failed to recall the warrant, which had been cancelled over one year prior to the arrest. Tom sued the San Francisco Chief of Police Cornelius P. Murphy, as well as the City and County of San Francisco. He also sued the town of Hillborough and the Chief of Police there, William A. Key.

Tom had also been to court in San Francisco, and the failure to cancel the bench warrant seems to be the result of a miscommunication about Tom's presence in court that day. Though it is unclear whether the error resides with the San Francisco court's failure to communicate the warrant cancellation to the police department, or with the police department itself (or the "computer," as they allege), Tom was clearly the victim of an unfair arrest. Similar errors were found in the Los Angeles County Police Department's database, which resulted in several arrests of people with "common names."