 |
click the pic to listen to the deputies' spiel!
Posted on 04/01/2015 4:58:00 PM PDT by Gamecock
Arrested and handcuffed as her 12-year-old daughter watched from a nearby window, April Christina Carter spent two days held without bond in a Greenville County Detention Center cell with a double-murder suspect.
Her offense: a $50 speeding fine that she said she had paid more than a decade ago but which remained on the books in Greenville County, triggering a bench warrant for her arrest.
Two days after she was taken into custody in the driveway of her mother’s house, Carter was released from the jail without explanation.
Now, Carter is suing Greenville County, Sheriff Steve Loftis and Deputy John Spencer Williams Jr. alleging they violated her constitutional rights and for false imprisonment, negligence and assault.
Her complaint, filed in Common Pleas Court in October, also lists as defendants two unknown county employees identifed as John Doe and Jane Doe.
In a court filing, the defendants denied wrongdoing and asked that the complaint be dismissed. The Sheriff’s Office referred questions to Christopher Antley, a Greenville attorney for the defendants. He couldn’t be reached.
“One of the biggest fears we have in our society is doing what you are supposed to do, being a law-abiding citizen, and being pulled over and arrested and incarcerated for 2½ days for no reason other than a government official didn’t do their job properly,” said Peter Protopapas, one of Carter’s attorneys.
According to Carter’s complaint and her attorneys:
In October 2001, when she was 18, Carter was cited for driving too fast for conditions or speeding less than 10 mph over the speed limit.
The citation called for her to appear in court for trial two months later. On the scheduled day of her trial, Carter appeared in court and paid a $50 fine. She received a receipt from West Greenville Summary Court and was told that by paying her fine, the issue was resolved and she was free to go.
She never received notice that her ticket hadn’t been paid, nor was her driver’s license revoked or suspended for failure to pay a traffic citation.
More 11 years later, when Carter pulled into her mother’s driveway that day in March 2013 and got out of her vehicle, two uniformed sheriff’s deputies parked behind her.
One of the deputies told Carter to put her belongings on the ground and her hands on the roof of the car. Her mother, aunt and daughter were in the house and watching.
One deputy told Carter she was being pulled over because a car fitting her vehicle’s description had been reported stolen.
A background check on her license turned up an outstanding Greenville County bench warrant from her 2001 citation.
Carter was arrested for failure to appear for the citation, even though she told deputies “on numerous occasions” she had paid the ticket on time.
She alleged in her complaint she was handcuffed, searched, placed in the patrol car and driven away while her family watched.
Carter was taken to the Greenville County Detention Center, where she was booked, searched again, fingerprinted and photographed, her complaint said. Then, she alleged, she was placed in a cell with a double-murder suspect and held without a bond hearing.
No criminal charges were filed and she remained in jail for two days before being released “with no further explanation,” Carter said.
In her suit, Carter contends the bench warrant was “facially deficient and obviously invalid” because it only stated she had been convicted of a speeding violation in October 2001 but failed to specify facts constituting a criminal offense such as failure to appear or failure to pay the fine.
She alleged she has suffered “stigmatism of reputation and character,” mental and emotional distress, depression and anxiety as a result of her arrest.
In their answer to the complaint, the defendants said they acted reasonably and in good faith and didn’t violate any of Carter’s “clearly established” rights. In addition, they said they were employees of a governmental entity and immune from the suit under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act.
A trial date hasn’t been set. Carter is asking for a jury trial and for actual and incidental damages. She also is seeking punitive damages.
I don’t even understand why she had to go to court in the first place. I am 68 and think I have had 3 tickets in my life.
Each time, I simply mailed in a check. Never had to go to court.
Some tickets you cannot prepay, like reckless driving in VA. You must appear for it. If you don’t a Capias is issued for you to make you appear...
If you go to court and ask to go to trial, they will often offer a reduced charge. Many people do that.
Only because she didn’t have one in the car
She was NOT ARRESTED, She was the Victim of a FELONY KIDNAPPING, Life in Prison for every last person involved
Not the sheriff or deputies fault....court clerk messed up way back when.
Deputy ran her name and system showed a warrant which someone then walked to a file cabinet and pulled out the paper warrant and said “yep...here it is...verified”
Then she goes to jail because a clerk in the courthouse never had either the payment of the fine entered or a warrant which had been drafted and entered before the court case was adjudicated.
Someone at the court house should be fired.....the guy driving the patrol had nothing to do with the mistake...he was basically the cab research de to jail after some judge said bring her to me.
Oh, I would want judges who screw up to face consequences TOO. Impose consequences on idiot judges AND idiot cops.
I was thinking the same thing. I don’t think the police perform background checks on warrants.
And its still not the fault of the arresting officers.
Don't type with your mouth full.
“In addition, they said they were employees of a governmental entity and immune from the suit under the South Carolina Tort Claims Act.”
So they can do whatever they want, peasants.
Yeah. Someone at the court should have closed the case on their computer which should automatically erase it from police computers.
The courts screw up bad all the time. Cops can be bad but they’re nowhere near as bad as the nearly untouchable public servants with bad attitudes.
I once had a Hillsdale county judge drop the charges against me for driving on a suspended license and I was technically driving on a suspended license.
I got arrested for drunk driving and the court suspended my license but didn’t bother to inform me or the secretary of state. I even renewed my license while it was suspended. The judge dropped the case right there and said he wasn’t going to punish me for a Jackson county court screw up.
“...And its still not the fault of the arresting officers...”
Absolutely the fault of the arresting officers! They are allowed sufficient discretion to assess the totality of the circumstances and decide if an arrest is needed, or if further investigation is warranted. Judges and clerks are not infallible. They do make mistakes. I have personal experience cleaning up some of those messes.
I don’t know all of the facts, but if the following are in the ball park of the facts...
1. It’s an 11 year old warrant for a minor traffic violation
2. The warrant does not indicate failure to pay
3. DMV shows no license suspensions on her record due to any failure to pay
4. She is not itinerant
5. Extended family in the area
6. No other arrest history
7. She was given a receipt for paying the fine
No way is she under arrest. I would tell my guys to get her information so we can follow up and advise her to get her receipt to the courthouse at her next opportunity and get it straightened out. Done. Sensibly.
We need more Andy Griffiths and fewer Barney Fifes.
Agreed. Can’t fault the Sheriff for fulfilling their duties professionally...though the 2 1/2 days seems a bone of contention in my book.
In this jurisdiction we might wonder how many other bungled case records are in their system.
When I first heard this story on local talk radio, I thought, “Man, who did she piss off?”....seems to me someone in authority found this info and used it to show her a lesson. Nowadays the law is used as retaliation against you whether it is legal or not :)
|
click the pic to listen to the deputies' spiel!
Plus, they were just following orders, and happened to find that her papers were not in order while doing so...
I detect a bit of /s despite lack of a tag.
Based on what I read, the deputies were completely professional & upstanding.
We’ve all read about worse encounters. The approached her without guns drawn to ask her about the car that matched one being reported stolen. Basic police work. To be clear, I do not support such pullovers without clear probable cause. If they did not have it, that should be actionable as well but not mentioned in reports.
County employees and lousy court staff (plus a pathetic Judge for putting his signature to such a non-specific bench warrant) are all to blame, not the deputies here. And despite her experience in jail (as reported), certainly not the Sheriff’s Dept. unless they held her past when she should otherwise have been released.
Most of us never have anything to worry about in such encounters with Sheriff’s Deputies. But it’s a hard lesson in ensuring you’re actually ‘cleared’ after paying a fine, etc. Myself, without elaborating, I am 100% sure I have nothing to worry about.
The wake-up call is, “Are others 100% sure???”
(that government bureaucrats/clerks did their job)
Why are people thrown in jail for automobile tickets? Shouldn’t a court appearance and heavy fines be enough?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.