 |
click the pic to listen to the deputies' spiel!
Posted on 04/01/2015 4:58:00 PM PDT by Gamecock
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.