Police conspiracy to create bench warrants?

I know there are some police officers on ATS and a lot of people with legal experience so here is a little story and some questions....

I know of a female escort that was given a citation for sex solicitation. She says she never mentioned performing sex with the undercover officer. Keep in mind that women can charge for their company or for their dances, etc. So anyway she gets a ticket and goes to court on the date specified. She finds that there is no docket and she is not on the list of names for that day. She asks a clerk what happened. The clerk looked at her ticket and says there must be some error or something so sign this form that proves you were here on this date & time specified on the ticket and you can avoid being faulted for not showing up. The clerk also told her that she will have to call the courthouse in a few days and check to see if the problem has been figured out and a new court date has been set. The clerk tells her it is her responsibility to call repeatedly until the problem is figured out and a new date set.

1) How does a police officer issue a citation without it getting ''filed'' or whatever the correct lingo is? In my city the police all use laptops to create these tickets. They are not hand written. It is made on a computer and I figured it was all automated once the officer creates the ticket. Could his laptop have crashed? Could there be a legitimate reason for the girl to have a ticket and the courthouse to not know about it?

2) How on Earth can the legal system schedule (or re-schedule) a court appearance without letting the person know? Why does the person have to continuously contact the courthouse to find out if a court date has been set? That seems bogus!

Also, I know a guy that got deeper into trouble because of a similar occurrence. He got a traffic ticket and when he went to court he was not scheduled and there was no docket. He didn't keep in contact to find out about any solution to the problem, a new date was scheduled without him knowing, he missed it, a bench warrant was issued and he ultimately got cuffed up, arrested, and taken downtown at a later date when he was identified after being pulled over again in a routine traffic stop.

I think this is some sort of bastard cop strategy to create bench warrants and get people caught up deeper in the system. How could this happen when all these tickets are written on computers in the squad cars and this stuff is all linked together? And I think the court should have to contact you and let you know if you have a court date. They let you know about your date when they write the ticket in the first place.

What say you, ATS?

Well, I once was issued with a citation during a neighborhood warrant sweep, related to a time a couple of years earlier when I'd been pulled over for expired registration on my car. It was essentially a second chance to appear in court and deal with whatever stemmed from the original incident instead of going straight to jail. I didn't contest it, because I was quite guilty, but the reason I didn't take care of it in the first place was that the officer who pulled me over failed to give me a ticket, and I hadn't signed anything at the time. When I appeared in court, I told all this to the judge, who just scowled at me and berated me for what he automatically assumed was a stupid attempt to get out of paying the fine. He showed it to me, which was odd, since that's the first time I'd seen it. I pointed out that it didn't have my signature on it and he got even more angry. I'm guessing because I dared to point out the officer's mistake. However, I paid the fine because I didn't want any more trouble. It still seems strange, but at the time I just thought it was an attempt to cover up a screw-up on the officer's part. (He seemed really young to me at the time, but that's probably a distorted perception on my part, because I'm in my mid-40's and he seemed to be in his early 20's.)

reply to post by warpcrafter


You've got another interesting variation there.

You get pulled, your registration is expired, but you say you don't get a ticket.
Then a long time later you are identified by an officer on a routine sweep, but instead of arrest you are issued a citation to appear in court to address the previous lack of showing up for court.

You say that in fact you never did get a ticket for the expired registration, yet the police officer did his part and created the docket for you. He must have written the ticket and just neglected to give it to you. That is VERY strange. How can a cop pull you over, get your license, go to his car, write a ticket, return to your car, return your license and then not give the ticket to you??! That is crazy.

Both of my stories are about the opposite situation. The officers gave the tickets, but the officers didn't carry through with their end of the deal and file the ticket or create the docket or whatever you call it. I think both of my examples, and also your example, constitute a breach of contract. I think the police have failed to perform.

But why? What is their reason? I think it is nasty strategy to screw with people for personal reasons maybe.

I think in my case it was just a mistake on the part of a rookie officer that they corrected with the second citation. That's why I went ahead and paid the fine, because there actually was a citation, it just wasn't handled properly. In the OP's case, it was probably just a computer glich.

Edited - Sorry I rambled a bit much off topic.

There is no conspiracy - except the conspiracy to hide all the different ways they collect taxes. Bench Warrants being one of them and the courts rules have always been tilted, so that all mistakes are your responsibility. Learn their game and just play it better.

[edit on 19-4-2010 by verylowfrequency]

Originally posted by Cabaret Voltaire

...

1) How does a police officer issue a citation without it getting ''filed'' or whatever the correct lingo is? In my city the police all use laptops to create these tickets. They are not hand written. It is made on a computer and I figured it was all automated once the officer creates the ticket. Could his laptop have crashed? Could there be a legitimate reason for the girl to have a ticket and the courthouse to not know about it?

2) How on Earth can the legal system schedule (or re-schedule) a court appearance without letting the person know? Why does the person have to continuously contact the courthouse to find out if a court date has been set? That seems bogus!

...

I've had that happen to me a couple of times. Showed up for court, and found out I wasn't on the docket. Often, it's because the arresting officer had something else to do on that date, so didn't want to show up for court.
I've had some tell me if you have an attorney when that happens, they can have the charge dismissed, and state that it is the fault of the court, which technically, it is.

It's wishy washy the way they handle it, because they don't have to care. If you don't show up as ordered, you're right; they'll just issue a bench warrant and when they stop you for something else, you'll get arrested.

But, again, to answer, it's usually the arresting officer not showing up that leads to rescheduling.

Does anybody know how to take care of this type of situation without an attorney?
Is there something that can be done after the fact, like going back to the courthouse and filing a form or something?
Or can you just walk into a courtroom and speak to the state district attorney or wait your turn and speak to the judge and ask to have the charge dropped?

reply to post by Cabaret Voltaire


You can call the court and ask for free legal representation. They will give you the number for the Public Defenders Office or a local attorneys office that contracts for the court who will act as Public defender. You will have to fill out a form to show your income and they will tell you right away if you qualify. The judge may make that decision for you, but you should call and talk to the public defender to make arrangements and get on their list.

Originally posted by Cabaret Voltaire
Does anybody know how to take care of this type of situation without an attorney?
Is there something that can be done after the fact, like going back to the courthouse and filing a form or something?
Or can you just walk into a courtroom and speak to the state district attorney or wait your turn and speak to the judge and ask to have the charge dropped?

In my district, usually you can work out something with the D.A. on something like this. They will still have to go before the judge and be legally identified and such, for record.

Have your friend call the District Attorney and someone in that office should be able to help. Since it seems to be a minor thing, they'll probably work them a good deal, and they might even dismiss it.

I've always suspected the very same thing.

Clearly they can benefit from holding one over your head, in-case they ever come across a need to detain you for any period of time. Here's what happened to me.

About 25 years ago, I got pulled over in my custom painted hot-rod, was told I made an "unsafe lane change", and was given a citation.

When I went to court, I noticed that my name wasn't on the "docket" for that day. I went to the clerk, and showed her the ticket. She told me that I would have to get a hold of the agency that wrote it.

When I called the Sheriff's Dept, they told me that the officer who wrote me the ticket didn't work there anymore, and they didn't have his ticket book. Over the next several weeks, I periodically called both the courthouse and the Sheriff's Dept. to see if they'd gotten a hold of him so I could take care of the ticket, and to make sure I didn't have a warrant.

Fast forward 15 years.

Early Christmas eve morning, I jumped in my truck to go collect a check for a construction job I had just completed. Since I kept the work truck parked in a secure garage, I always just left my tools in the back, and lots of them.

I collected my check, and started heading home. As soon as I pulled away from the curb, a sheriff got on my bumper, tailgated me down the road for about a mile, and hit his red light, so I pulled over.

When he got to the window, he told me that the reason he pulled me over was because my truck matched the description of one that had been seen near construction sites that were recently broken into.

I'm pretty sure this guy thought he had his man, and it was time to use that hole card.

Being so long ago, I don't quite remember the conversation, but I do remember the other two cruisers screeching in around me, blocking me in, like I was trying to get away or something.

Of course, they ran me for warrants and, what do you know, I had one! (15 years old, for an unsafe lane change!)

Other than mentioning the reason for pulling me over, they never charged me with anything.

Embarrassing as it was, I called my dad and had him come bail me out of jail for the unpaid ticket. I didn't feel like spending Christmas locked up, and it was a weekend so there wouldn't be a chance to see a judge before then.

Now, I know for a fact my name had been run 3 times during those 15 years, the most recent was literally 3 days earlier when I was held hostage by a murderer that decided that my house looked like a good place to hide. Hell, after I escaped, they had me handcuffed in the back of a squad car while they killed him wearing my clothes. (another story altogether)

So what are the odds that warrant came out of nowhere when it did? Why not a few days earlier? Why not a few years earlier?

Anyway, when I went to get my truck out of impound that day, they told me I'd have to come back later for it. I went home, enjoyed my Christmas and went back to get it the following Monday.

Turns out, the reason they wouldn't give me my truck was because they were busy doing a complete inventory on every item in it and checking every single serial number on all my equipment. They handed me an itemized list, several pages long, complete with a detailed description of every thing I owned, which I have to this day since I still have many of those tools.

After all that, I showed up to the re-scheduled court date and paid the $80 fine.
Right after I rolled my eyes at the judge like this.

reply to post by lernmore


Holy cow that is insane. Thanks for the response. It was a fun read.

reply to post by passingthought


Thanks.
I'll pass this info along.

I used to live in Tennessee where judges are elected. Problems of this sort
don't usually happen. The judge would tend to bend over backward to toss
something like this out. If the cop doesn't show up and you do, it pretty
much standard to dismiss. An unsigned ticket would possibly get you an
apology. You don't have to have a lawyer to get a dismissal.

Where judges are dependent on a voting public they are quite sensitive to
particularly traffic type snafu's. One "asshole" decisions can cost them a
lot of votes.

Its not a perfect system either, but it avoids some abuses.