My husband was pulled over today in a work vehicle due to non working rear tail lights and wound up being arrested for an outstanding warrant that he was not aware of. The warrant was for a failure to appear. After some investigation we were able to determine that the failure to appear stems from a check sent back for insufficient funds from 01/04. We were able to find out that it was payment for a water bill for a home we sold in 09/04. We went to the water departement and received a statement of our water account and the account shows a zero balance. Also there were no outstanding liens on the property when it was sold. We questioned why we were never notified about the returned check. The city clerk advised us that a letter was sent via certified mail (although we never received it and it was sent back from the post office--I can not say if we ever received the notification that a certified letter was at the post office or not since it has been almost 3 years, but my husband and i both work about an hour from home so the only day we can make it to our post office would be on Saturday). We have spoken with the prosecuting attorney and explained that we were never notified about a check and she has agreed to waive the failure to appear but my husband must still appear in court regarding the check. My husband was told by the prosecuting attorney that he will just have to come in and plead innocent or guilty to that charge. We have no problem paying the check but I am not sure if my husband should go ahead and plead guilty since the check was returned or does he have reason to fight this since we would have paid it prior to going to court if we had known that the money was still outstanding? just a side note. We sold that property after a fire destroyed the property in 7/04. The water was never shut off due to nonpayment. After we sold that home we purchased a home across the street from that one and turned on water once again in his name.
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