I got no first appearance
and I ain't to see a judge,
they put me into population
Posted on 08/07/2007 9:02:39 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
OCALA, Fla. -- The Internal Affairs Division of the Marion County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation into a clerical error that mistakenly put a woman behind bars for nine days.
Amy Sellers, 22, of Ocala, was taken into custody about two weeks ago for a warrant that matched another 28-year-old woman named Amy Sellers.
Sellers, who had not committed any crimes, said she was taken into custody and immediately thrown into the inmate population.
"When I found out, I got no first appearance and I (didn't get) to see a judge," Sellers said. "They put me into population."
The Marion County Sheriff's Office admitted that Sellers' incident was a mistake.
"Due to a clerical error, the incorrect information was put into the computer system for a warrant that matched another Amy Sellers, who also has a criminal history in Marion County," a sheriff's office statement issued Monday said.
Sellers is in the system for drunken driving and driving with a suspended license four years ago but has not been arrested since.
Sellers' boyfriend said he spent days trying to show the sheriff's office the error. He said when the sheriff's office finally believed him, the jail kept Sellers another day to verify the mistake.
Sellers said she lost 15 pounds while behind bars and is considering suing over the incident.
"My faith in the justice system is crumbled and gone completely and I don't know if I will ever be able to salvage it again," Sellers said. "What if I was a single mother, 30 years old, that this happened to that for 10 days was in jail for the wrong reasons and lost her kids and job."
The sheriff's office said it would reimburse Sellers for any expenses she incurred while jailed.
Sellers said, "That is a joke," Local 6 reported.
The Internal Affairs Division is also investigating the warrant process in connection with the case.
And again, you doctor a quote to misrepresent what said, never4get.
Plus this time you add cowardice to your lying by not pinging me as you twist my words.
So you believe if someone with the same name, who has no previous record, is pulled over for a traffic stop they would not have been arrested?
There are probably 50 of them in Detroit
You are absolutly wrong.
If you are stopped for a traffic stop and your name matches a warrent, you will be seriously examined for arrest. It is that simple. The system is not saying there are two people, the system is saying YOU are that person with the warrent.
Too many officers have refuse to do their job with the excuse “the judge will sort it out.”
The fact she was “in the system” is just the excuse the Sheriff is using to try and Nifong his liability.
Correct.
However, the warrant is not issued by searching driver records, but by searching arrest records.
She probably didn't get to appear before a judge, because the 28 year old Amy who they thought she was had already had her day in court and lost.
The personal identification clearly did not match up at all.
The clerk of courts entered the information under the wrong person, so as far as the Sherrif's department was concerned the identification was 100% correct. They arrested the person the record showed had an outstanding warrant. Verifying her identification would have verified that they had the right person. To catch the error, someone had to go back and find the records of the original arrest of the 28 year old Amy to find out that the clerk of courts had screwed up, and depending on how far back the mistake went, some of that information may not have been right either.
Is the County and Town to argue they simply disregarded her pleas of innocence because she did not have counsel, that alone can be deemed willful, wanton, wicked conduct, well beyond negligence.
Since the records were wrong, it is likely that they didn't ignore her pleas, they just didn't look deep enough to discover the mistake. It wasn't a case where they misidentified her. They identified her correctly, but the records of who had committed the crime were incorrect, though the name was right, which likely contributed to initial investigations showing that they had the right person, even though they did not.
We’re not doing too good down here.
Clerical failure led to wrongful arrest, he says
Man says he cleared up confusion when his brother used his name, but Sheriff’s Office didn’t follow through with the paperwork Tuesday, August 07, 2007By DAN MURTAUGHStaff Reporter
A Fulton, Ala., man has filed a lawsuit claiming that he was wrongly arrested because of an administrative error by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.
Gerald Blaine Newton is seeking unspecified damages and has listed the Sheriff’s Office, former Sheriff Jack Tillman, current Sheriff Sam Cochran, the Mobile County Commission and the Mobile City Council as defendants in the 2005 incident.
Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kate Johnson said that as of Monday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Office had not been served with the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in Mobile County Circuit Court.
Newton’s attorney, Philip Perkins of Thomasville, also could not be reached for comment.
According to the lawsuit, Newton’s brother, Brent Newton, was arrested in Mobile on April 7, 2005. Brent Newton gave authorities his brother’s name, according to the lawsuit.
Two weeks later, Gerald Newton found out and drove to Mobile County to clear up the confusion, according to the suit. Sheriff’s deputies cleared him of the charges and gave him paperwork to prove he was innocent of any wrongdoing, the lawsuit claims.
But the Sheriff’s Department failed to file the necessary paperwork to eliminate the charges from computer records, the lawsuit claims, and Newton was arrested in Monroe County in August and sent back to Mobile County Metro Jail.
Even after Newton showed jail employees the paperwork, they continued to keep him locked up, the lawsuit contends.
Jail records show that Brent Newton was booked on April 7, 2005 on a charge of possession of a controlled substance, and that Gerald Newton was booked Aug. 3 and was later released on charges of having an improper tag and not having his driver’s license.
http://www.al.com/news/press-register/index.ssf?/base/news/118647859756020.xml&coll=3
now you are being obtuse.
A warrent for skipping out on a bond like this will turn up the same “detain” instruction.
Get a grip on reality. The woman with the same name was a typical “skipped town”. It does not matter if it was a bail skip, a violation of probation skip, or a parole skip; there was a detainer out there and the polic officer did not examine beyond the name match.
no the sheriff still botch this because the fingerprints should have been compared IMMEDIATLY.
There is ZERO excuse on this one.
IF the sheriff wants to mitigate, a REAL WRITTEN AND SINCERE appology should come forth, not a clintonesque BS statement.
She was arrested because the police came to her house specifically looking for her with an erroneous warrant.
She was not randomly arrested at a traffic stop.
They came looking for her on purpose, armed with a warrant that a judge's clerk had mistakenly given them.
Stead of *itchin' she oughta patent the diet method---especially for those going to a swell party wanting to get into a skinny dress---"have yourself placed in prison population for 10 days." (just kidding)
wideawake: Did either of them violate the terms of their probation or drive on suspended licenses in defiance of the court?
Or did they learn their lessons and walk the straight and narrow afterwards?
Why wouldn't you apply the same standard to Bush and Cheney DUIs as you did with this woman in Post #36?
wideawake:
If she only drove drunk once in her entire life and she happened to be arrested on the only night she ever drove drunk, that would be among the most incredible coincidences in human history.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Cheney and Bush fall into two different categories.
The Vice President reoffended, like the woman in this article, and the President did not reoffend and also did not violate the terms of his probation, like the woman in this article.
The Vice President has since remained clean for 44 years and the President for 31 years.
If the Vice President and President had been busted only four years ago, it would be difficult to say that they had demonstrated a long-term commitment to not driving impaired.
At this point that difficulty is much diminished.
Next, maybe you did not read the details about the fact that she never even was offered an appearance. They threw her in there for 30 days with absolutely no bond, so how exactly do expect her to have been able to get an insant attorney on the first night and how exactly do you even know she didn’t ask for one? I bet if she did, the appointed attorney would NOT have had her out in the 9 days that her family did. With that said, I am not sure if at 22 years of age you could afford an attorney for such legal matters, but I’m sure that most cannot.
Open your eyes, I cannot believe that someone can be so biased and one sided on something that can affect ones life so much.
Which would have properly identified her as the person that the court records showed had a warrant for her arrest.
THE SHERIFF'S OFFICE DID NOT MISIDENTIFY THIS WOMAN.
This kind of problem where someone is brought in under a warrant for the wrong person is usually a case of misidentifying someone. That isn't what happened in this case. The warrant was recorded for the wrong person. An attempts to verify that they had the right person would simply confirm that they had the person for whom their records showed had a warrant for their arrest. The courthouse screwed up. The Sheriff's department was operating properly based on the information they had been given.
Since they likely hear one criminal after another claim they have the wrong person, it isn't too surprising that it took a little while for them to figure this one out, when confirming her identity didn't show that they had the wrong person.
The point is, if you apply your standard, then Bush must have had a pattern of drinking and driving - unless he only drove drunk once in his entire life and he happened to be arrested on the only night he ever drove drunk. That would be among the most incredible coincidences in human history.
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