Sheehan Arrested For Unpaid Traffic Ticket

KWTX TV ^ | 08/30/2006

[LA Woman3]

(August 30, 2006)—Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan’s stay this month in Central Texas has not been a pleasant one.

First she was admitted to a local hospital for treatment of exhaustion and dehydration and to undergo gynecological tests. Last week she underwent a hysterectomy.

Then Tuesday night police from the Waco suburb of Woodway arrested her near Crawford on traffic warrants.

She was cited for following too closely and failure to appear.

Sheehan was released after she paid a $400 fine.

She plans to remain here through Labor Day, but then she and other anti-war demonstrators are planning to shift their protests to Washington, D.C.

The planned protests and events will be known as Camp Democracy, organizers announced Tuesday during a news conference in Washington, D.C.

The protests will begin on Sept. 5 and will run through Sept. 21.

[LA Woman3]

More details....

Unpaid traffic ticket briefly halts Sheehan protest at Bush ranch

Thursday, August 31, 2006

By Mónica Ortiz Uribe

Tribune-Herald staff writer

Cindy Sheehan’s peace vigil this summer has been largely free of run-ins with local law enforcement regarding her right to protest near President Bush’s Crawford-area ranch, but that didn’t keep her from technical arrest for an unpaid traffic ticket near the ranch checkpoint Tuesday evening.

Woodway police informed the 49-year-old California peace activist that her right to protest the Iraq war was fine by them but that she still needed to address a ticket issued on July 16 by Woodway police for following too close behind another vehicle in a Jeep rental car in Woodway.

A Woodway police sergeant and a corporal went to Prairie Chapel Road near Crawford shortly before 8 p.m. to serve arrest warrants, a Woodway police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan had two outstanding warrants — one for the original ticket for following too closely, another for failure to appear, the spokeswoman said.

Woodway police then allowed Sheehan to leave the Bush ranch checkpoint and follow them to the Woodway police station in her own vehicle to pay the fines, the spokeswoman said. Woodway police said this is common department practice and was not a special exception made for Sheehan.

A ticketed driver has 10 days to appear before a judge before the warrant process begins, the Woodway spokeswoman said. She said that she didn’t have access to court clerk records Wednesday night but that the two warrants cost $100, plus fines for the two tickets.

Sheehan had meant to pay the traffic ticket weeks earlier and even gave fellow protester Tiffany Burns an envelope with the fine to pay, Burns said Wednesday.

However, the ticket went forgotten amid other crises, including a series of illnesses this month that landed Sheehan in Providence Health Center, where last week she underwent a hysterectomy.

“I mean, she was in the hospital and all and really sick,” Burns said. “To be honest, she put (the fine) in an envelope and asked me to drop it in the mail and I forgot, so I guess you could say I was really responsible.”

Burns said news reports stating Sheehan had been arrested for not paying the traffic ticket were false, and county officials confirmed there was no record of the war protester being booked into McLennan County Jail.

Woodway police said that their escorting Sheehan back to Woodway — about 15 miles east — to take care of the matter was technically an arrest but that she was never handcuffed or placed in a patrol car.

Law enforcement officials didn’t have to look far for Sheehan. After visiting New Orleans, President Bush stayed at his Prairie Chapel Ranch on Tuesday night, spurring Sheehan and other war protesters camped nearby to gather at the ranch checkpoint. That’s where Woodway officers found her.

Burns, who said she was arrested during a protest that she, Sheehan and others mounted at an Aug. 19 GOP fundraiser featuring presidential adviser Karl Rove in Austin, said Woodway officers were courteous in their handling of Tuesday’s incident.

“We think the NYPD and the Austin police could come here and take some training from the Woodway police,” she said.

[RebaJ]

A funny thing about that money in the envelope comment. Last night the Waco news broadcast Sheehan's reply saying she never received any information that there was a warrant for this unpaid ticket received in January. She mentioned the two week hospital stay and that she was not home to have received any notice in the mail that she had to pay it. I wonder why she would give someone an envelope of money for a ticket weeks before her arrest if she knew nothing about it.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

More like a "conservative" plot, really. Absent evidence of an accident, how does the LEO intend to prove his "following too close" charge as probable cause?

Still, it's okay by me.

[LA Woman3]

Did you see the interview on KXXV? I looked for the video this morning and they didn't have it online.

[RebaJ]

Yes I did see the interview last night on the 10pm kxxv news.

[Right Brother]

that poor gyno.

[gopheraj]

mark

[OldEagle]

I did a google and found an image of Tiffany. I won't post it, but it might vouch for her veracity.

[submarinerswife]

Last week she underwent a hysterectomy. Then Tuesday night police from the Waco suburb of Woodway arrested her near Crawford on traffic warrants. A hysterectomy is major surgery. How can you be up and about and getting arrested in less than a week???

Not only that, but when the MSM was reporting the "protests" in Salt Lake City, they memtioned that Sheehan wasn't feeling well but absolutely no mention of recovery from surgery.

Smells fishy..........pun intended