Posted on 12/04/2022 6:14:30 AM PST by devane617
VALLEY, Ala. (WTVM) - An 82-year-old woman was arrested for failure to pay for her trash services, according to the Valley Police Department.
According to officials, the City of Valley Code Enforcement Officers issued Menefield a citation in August 2022 for non-payment for trash services for the months of June, July and August - the bill totaled $77.80.
Prior to issuing the citation, Code Enforcement said they attempted to call Menefield several times and even attempted to contact her in person at her residence. When contact could not be made, a door hanger was left at her residence.
The hanger contained information on the reason for the visit and a name and contact phone number for her to call. The citation advised Menefield that she was to appear in court on September 7, in reference to this case.
A warrant was issued when she did not appear in court.
According to Environmental Services, Menefield has had her trash services suspended three times in the past two years for non-payment - and officials say records show over 22 incidents of suspensions of services since 2006.
Associated Press says court records show that she was arrested in 2006 for not paying a $206.54 trash bill. The case was later dismissed “upon compliance,” according to court records.
On November 27, officers arrested Martha Louis Menefield on the charge of failure to pay - trash. She was processed at the Valley Police Department and then released on bond.
The Valley Police Department says Menefield was treated respectfully by our officers in the performance of their duties and was released on a bond as prescribed by the violation.
She should have called the White House. They were livin’ high on the hog this week.
I do not think it was necessary to put an 82 year old woman in jail for this. She could not have had that much trash,
maybe she couldn’t get to the court. I remember when Eric Holder failed to appear for a Congressional subpeona for the deaths of a couple border agents with his Fast and Furious gun running program. He just decided he wasn’t gonna appear. Nothing ever happened to him,
And this old woman is in jail?
I guess it depends on where you live. Where I live trash pickup is private. Failure to pay would lead to loss of service. The government is always different. They seem to always take the power trip approach.
Applause.
Cops who will do this will do anything else.
- - - - - - -
The judge, too.
Problem is... We start agreeing this is acceptable and then what will be next?
You are just stupid .....
I pointed out the error in thinking prevelevant on this post. The woman was not jailed for a civil action debt.
Extrapolating to Debtors Prison is hyperbolic stupidity
The arrest was for failure to appear in court about the unpaid trash bills, not the failure to pay it. But you have to wonder about the priorities of this place. Has every criminal been rounded up and dealt with already, leaving the area crime-free? Or does public safety come after collecting petty utility bills inefficiently?
That said, if the public believes that some individuals can get away with not paying for services, the trash agency will collapse, the town will have no public sanitation services, rats and disease will be rampant, property values will collapse resulting in insufiecient tax revenue for schools, courts, and law enforcement to function, etc. Failure to pay does threaten public safety in a roundabout way. For want of a nail, etc...
Nothing says "power trip" like sending armed men out to drag an 82 year old woman out of her house over $77. And if she had resisted being dragged out of her house they would have killed her.
What would the judge who issued the warrant say if a couple of citizens showed up armed at somebody's house who owed them $77 and dragged them away in handcuffs in order to persuade them to pay their bill?
The only reason for the summons was to enable the use of force to collect the $77 instead of the normal process of collection for debts. The use of the court system for forced collection is inappropriate.
A defendant who fails to appear at a civil proceeding loses by default, they don't get arrested.
In reality that does not happen. Most of New Hampshire does not have public trash collection and it doesn't cause any problems at all. In fact our communities have less problems with littering, dumping, etc. than communities in other places that do have government run trash collection.
No... Even health and safety codes will not get you jailed if you fail to appear. Just like a civil case, if you don’t show up to court you have defaulted by choice and they can seize your property and evict you. But they DO NOT JAIL YOU even for failure to appear.
It is treated “as” a civil case. Always has, always should be. So owing a debt should have never warranted a citation and shall appear because she did not violate any health or safety laws. Her garbage was not piling up in her yard. So no health and safety laws were being violated.
A judge made the decision
The Court speaks by its written word on the Court Action Sheet. One has no responsibility to verify a date in court. The Judge had the responsibility to have looked at the form he signed to have verified it was accurate.
No code enforcement was an idiot. The citation should have never been written in the first place. It should have never even went to a judge as an infraction. And I will even bet there is no code for being written a violation just for failure to pay. Want to bet?
Someone abused their authority.
“A defendant who fails to appear at a civil proceeding loses by default, they don’t get arrested.”
Absolutely, right on the money.
If she had simply planned and conspired to undermine, compromise and overthrow a legitimately elected president she’d never have any issues whatsoever.
And Sam bankman fried, hillary, comey, ray epps and a host of others…
I agree. Where was this judge on this. He could of came up with a number of ways to solve this.
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.