Violation of rights, wrongful arrest due to clerical error

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To Whom it May Concern

I will keep this as simple as possible. I got a DUI in 2014. I purposely let it go to warrant due to living very rural, lack of transportation and funds at the time, and I could not enroll or do Work Release. In december 2015 I hired an attorney and decided to turn myself in and do jail time as my sentence instead of doing work release. I have the minute order that clearly states

"20 days JAIL may be satisfied by 20 days WORK RELEASE"

I turned myself into jail early February 2016 and satisfied my requirements to the courts. I also had 18 months probation I believe and 9 months classes. I completed everything. Since then I've become a local licensed contractor. I thought this was looooong behind me. I get pulled over christmas day 2019. I'm asked by the officer "is your name XXXXXXXXXXX?" I said "yes sir it is." they arrested me on the spot for VOP and failure to appear in court. I was dumb founded. I knew this was a mistake and pleaded this to the officer. He looked me up in his CHP car as i'm in the back and shows me my picture and shows I have a warrant. I go to jail on christmas and spend half a day in there before getting released approximately 11:00pm in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I live very rurally, no taxis and no one could pick me up so I walked home over 10 miles.

I was incredibly confused because I knew I satisfied all of my obligations. I got all of my paperwork from the courts to do some digging. It turns out the court violated me for failure to enroll in work release. They never saw, or never looked, or didn't care that I did jail time instead. So they issued a warrant in august of 2016. Ive been living with this warrant for years with absolutely no knowledge of it. I even took a DOJ FBI background check April 2019 that came up clean. I had absolutely no clue.

I went to court this morning. The judge opens up my case like the other 40 in there all with public defenders. She says I violated probation in 2016 due to not enrolling in work release. I told her that is because I did jail time instead which clearly states in my minute order I can do. She looked rather dumbfounded. She looks at the clerk who is typing on the computer. The judge states she sees I went to jail in february 2016. After some silence, again looking confused herself, she says she is dropping or releasing this case, i'm not sure exactly how she worded it. I looked at her and said "so is this over with now?" she says "yes"

I said to her "your honor what kind of restitution will I be receiving due to this clerical error on the part of the courts." she stated they cannot give legal advice. My new minute order that I received today is a full admission of guilt on the part of the county in my opinion. On the first page it says

I am there for "the defendent is arraigned on the probation violation for failure to enroll in w/r"

on the very next page it states "Orders: other: Defendent served 20 days in the county jail in February 2016 in lieu of 20 days W/R"

I am so blown away right now i'm shaking. I am so appalled they can wrongfully arrest people that have fulfilled every obligation by the courts.

I have been embarrassed due to my picture being published, I went to jail on christmas 2019, I wasted my time yet again proving my innocence.

I want to sue and sue for the maximum financial amount to compensate for my constitutional violation. What if I pulled out a gun or refused to be arrested on Christmas Day knowing they were wrongfully arresting me? I am blown away.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, someone please help me fight for my rights. There has got to be a large financial settlement here and I'm willing to share. Thank you in advance.

Jason.the.stove.guy
 
You might get a few bucks for your time, but don't expect a windfall here. I DO recommend that you file any claim with the agency in a timely manner (6 months from the incident), otherwise you can't take any further action. It can't hurt to talk to an attorney.

To Whom it May Concern

I will keep this as simple as possible. I got a DUI in 2014. I purposely let it go to warrant due to living very rural, lack of transportation and funds at the time, and I could not enroll or do Work Release. In december 2015 I hired an attorney and decided to turn myself in and do jail time as my sentence instead of doing work release. I have the minute order that clearly states

"20 days JAIL may be satisfied by 20 days WORK RELEASE"

I turned myself into jail early February 2016 and satisfied my requirements to the courts. I also had 18 months probation I believe and 9 months classes. I completed everything. Since then I've become a local licensed contractor. I thought this was looooong behind me. I get pulled over christmas day 2019. I'm asked by the officer "is your name XXXXXXXXXXX?" I said "yes sir it is." they arrested me on the spot for VOP and failure to appear in court. I was dumb founded. I knew this was a mistake and pleaded this to the officer. He looked me up in his CHP car as i'm in the back and shows me my picture and shows I have a warrant. I go to jail on christmas and spend half a day in there before getting released approximately 11:00pm in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I live very rurally, no taxis and no one could pick me up so I walked home over 10 miles.

I was incredibly confused because I knew I satisfied all of my obligations. I got all of my paperwork from the courts to do some digging. It turns out the court violated me for failure to enroll in work release. They never saw, or never looked, or didn't care that I did jail time instead. So they issued a warrant in august of 2016. Ive been living with this warrant for years with absolutely no knowledge of it. I even took a DOJ FBI background check April 2019 that came up clean. I had absolutely no clue.

I went to court this morning. The judge opens up my case like the other 40 in there all with public defenders. She says I violated probation in 2016 due to not enrolling in work release. I told her that is because I did jail time instead which clearly states in my minute order I can do. She looked rather dumbfounded. She looks at the clerk who is typing on the computer. The judge states she sees I went to jail in february 2016. After some silence, again looking confused herself, she says she is dropping or releasing this case, i'm not sure exactly how she worded it. I looked at her and said "so is this over with now?" she says "yes"

I said to her "your honor what kind of restitution will I be receiving due to this clerical error on the part of the courts." she stated they cannot give legal advice. My new minute order that I received today is a full admission of guilt on the part of the county in my opinion. On the first page it says

I am there for "the defendent is arraigned on the probation violation for failure to enroll in w/r"

on the very next page it states "Orders: other: Defendent served 20 days in the county jail in February 2016 in lieu of 20 days W/R"

I am so blown away right now i'm shaking. I am so appalled they can wrongfully arrest people that have fulfilled every obligation by the courts.

I have been embarrassed due to my picture being published, I went to jail on christmas 2019, I wasted my time yet again proving my innocence.

I want to sue and sue for the maximum financial amount to compensate for my constitutional violation. What if I pulled out a gun or refused to be arrested on Christmas Day knowing they were wrongfully arresting me? I am blown away.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, someone please help me fight for my rights. There has got to be a large financial settlement here and I'm willing to share. Thank you in advance.

Jason.the.stove.guy
 
Thank you Zigner

I'm not looking for a windfall. I am a local business owner and I employee 5 people. I'm ok financially. I want compensation due to them wasting my time. I want defamation for publishing my info when they were in the wrong.

I got out of court this morning at 10am Pacific. Ive already called probably 15 attorneys. Im wasting absolutely 0 time. If I or anyone is in the wrong I feel you should pay your time. My issue is the county is in the wrong, they need to be held to the same level of accountability for wrongfully arresting their citizens. Again I am not hurting financially, I am not looking for a windfall. I want this in the papers, I want the public to know that a local citizen is holding the local government accountable for a violation of rights. I can not believe they can wrongfully arrest you due to not paying attention to the paperwork. They need to pay, if no one holds them accountable this will continue to happen over and over.

Thank you for your time.
 
Thank you Zigner

I'm not looking for a windfall. I am a local business owner and I employee 5 people. I'm ok financially. I want compensation due to them wasting my time. I want defamation for publishing my info when they were in the wrong.

I got out of court this morning at 10am Pacific. Ive already called probably 15 attorneys. Im wasting absolutely 0 time. If I or anyone is in the wrong I feel you should pay your time. My issue is the county is in the wrong, they need to be held to the same level of accountability for wrongfully arresting their citizens. Again I am not hurting financially, I am not looking for a windfall. I want this in the papers, I want the public to know that a local citizen is holding the local government accountable for a violation of rights. I can not believe they can wrongfully arrest you due to not paying attention to the paperwork. They need to pay, if no one holds them accountable this will continue to happen over and over.

Thank you for your time.

Best of luck in your crusade.
 
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, someone please help me fight for my rights. There has got to be a large financial settlement here and I'm willing to share. Thank you in advance.

No, there doesn't have to be a "large financial settlement" out of this. And from what you described, there likely won't be a huge sum of money for you out of this. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that under federal law all you are entitled to win for a violation of your U.S. Constitutional rights is compensation for the actual damages you suffered as a result — financial losses, physical injury, etc. Lost time is not itself compensable in law suit. You were arrested on Christmas day and spent half a day in jail. If you lost income as a result of that, and can prove how much, then you could get that lost back. But if you weren't going to work on Christmas day anyway then there is no lost income involved for which you may sue. Again, the lost time itself is not compensable. If you had attorneys fees in suing for the violation the court may order the government to pay the attorney's fees, too.

California law is, as I recall, a bit more favorable to you but not by much. In the end it pretty much still works out that you mostly just get compensation for the actual harm suffered.

As a result there isn't some big pay off to you from this error. But you may be due something out of this. If you contact law firms that handle civil rights violations and find out they are not interested in taking the case that tells you that they sell very little chance of a worthwhile outcome from it, i.e. that you'd not win enough to make it worth the time and effort it would take to litigate it.
 
I am so blown away right now i'm shaking. I am so appalled they can wrongfully arrest people that have fulfilled every obligation by the courts.

Were you really unaware before this happened that human beings sometimes make mistakes?

I want to sue and sue for the maximum financial amount to compensate for my constitutional violation.

What provision of the federal or California Constitution do you believe was violated by what you acknowledge to have been a clerical error?

What if I pulled out a gun or refused to be arrested on Christmas Day knowing they were wrongfully arresting me?

What is the point of considering "what if" you had done two very stupid things that you did not actually do?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, someone please help me fight for my rights. There has got to be a large financial settlement here and I'm willing to share.

"Has to be"? No. For starters, you don't appear to have suffered any actual financial damages.

I'm not trying to minimize what happened. It sucks, and you may be entitled to some small amount of compensation (you might even get a "go away and shut up" settlement that exceeds the real value of the case). However, you should not seek to turn this into something it isn't. I don't know what "large" means to you in this context, but there will be no "large financial settlement" resulting from this admitted clerical error. Nor am I sure what "help" you believe any of the anonymous strangers on this message board might provide.

I want defamation for publishing my info when they were in the wrong.

You "want defamation"? Huh?

What information do you think was published and to whom was it published? Do you have any understanding of what defamation actually is?

I got out of court this morning at 10am Pacific. Ive already called probably 15 attorneys. Im wasting absolutely 0 time.

So...again, what is it that you think the anonymous strangers who post here might do for you?

My issue is the county is in the wrong, they need to be held to the same level of accountability for wrongfully arresting their citizens.

The same level as what?

They need to pay, if no one holds them accountable this will continue to happen over and over.

That's ridiculous. Mistakes do happen, but they are incredibly uncommon. You're obviously free to complain to the supervisors of the individuals involved. Someone might even lose a job over this.
 
Thank you for the responses.

People do mistakes, and I paid for mine. I paid restitution, I did 9 months of classes, and 20 days in jail. I'm not complaining or saying I did not deserve that. What I am stating is that when someone makes a mistake they need to pay. I paid, so why doesn't the court need to pay? I'm not an attorney so I do not know the legal terminology. Y'all can run jargon all day on me that's totally fine. Just like was stayed, people make mistakes. I AGREE. When mistakes happen, people need to be held accountable. For example I made a mistake and for a DUI in 2014. The court made a mistake for accusing me of VOP failure to enroll in work release. I did jail instead. I was printed with my picture on websites and arrested. Again I am ok financially. I do not want a windfall. I simply want them held accountable for their incredible mistakes. Someone violated me for not signing up to work release when I did 20 days jail in lieu. I'm not trying to go outside the lines.

Again, I made a mistake, I paid and fulfilled any and all of my obligations.

The court then made an error and arrested me on Christmas. That is a mistake. They should not get a free pass.

To anyone that sees this, I'm NOT trying to get rich, I do not care about that, I'm fine financially. I simply want courts held to the same level of accountability that they held me. If I was an attorney I would not be here.

Thank you for your help and for your time
 
Thank you for the responses.

People do mistakes, and I paid for mine. I paid restitution, I did 9 months of classes, and 20 days in jail. I'm not complaining or saying I did not deserve that. What I am stating is that when someone makes a mistake they need to pay. I paid, so why doesn't the court need to pay? I'm not an attorney so I do not know the legal terminology. Y'all can run jargon all day on me that's totally fine. Just like was stayed, people make mistakes. I AGREE. When mistakes happen, people need to be held accountable. For example I made a mistake and for a DUI in 2014. The court made a mistake for accusing me of VOP failure to enroll in work release. I did jail instead. I was printed with my picture on websites and arrested. Again I am ok financially. I do not want a windfall. I simply want them held accountable for their incredible mistakes. Someone violated me for not signing up to work release when I did 20 days jail in lieu. I'm not trying to go outside the lines.

Again, I made a mistake, I paid and fulfilled any and all of my obligations.

The court then made an error and arrested me on Christmas. That is a mistake. They should not get a free pass.

To anyone that sees this, I'm NOT trying to get rich, I do not care about that, I'm fine financially. I simply want courts held to the same level of accountability that they held me. If I was an attorney I would not be here.

Thank you for your help and for your time

You are right - they should pay, but only for your actual damages. If you're trying to get a financial award that will, somehow, teach them a lesson, then your hopes are in vain.
 
Have you folks been to jail due to a clerical error? The only reason I'm asking is because it's a pretty bad feeling. There is no level of money that will pay me back. I lost Christmas Day with my baby girl because somebody in the system didn't look to see I chose jail instead of work release. It's a failure of the justice system. I know mistakes happen and I paid for mine. The justice system wrongfully arrested me. I want to be compensated for never having that day back with my daughter, for being arrested completely in the wrong after fulfilling every obligation. I feel like everyone here is on the defense of "you're not gonna get rich."

Again, I'm fine financially. The courts can NOT arrest people because they made a paperwork mistake. This is absolutely incredible.
 
Have you folks been to jail due to a clerical error? The only reason I'm asking is because it's a pretty bad feeling. There is no level of money that will pay me back. I lost Christmas Day with my baby girl because somebody in the system didn't look to see I chose jail instead of work release. It's a failure of the justice system. I know mistakes happen and I paid for mine. The justice system wrongfully arrested me. I want to be compensated for never having that day back with my daughter, for being arrested completely in the wrong after fulfilling every obligation. I feel like everyone here is on the defense of "you're not gonna get rich."

Again, I'm fine financially. The courts can NOT arrest people because they made a paperwork mistake. This is absolutely incredible.
Yes, it sucks. It really sucks.

Now, please come back to reality. What do you expect to accomplish here?
 
The court to admit they're wrong. I want someone to lose their job. I want someone held accountable for arresting me due to a clerical error. I want perceived compensation for losing the only Christmas Day with my family. I want compensation for the time I've taken to track down all this paperwork. I want the place that published my picture and info online like I'm a current criminal to be held accountable. I know I WAS but it was done in 2016, so I'm not currently. I want the courts to publicly admit they wrongfully arrested a citizen and he is fighting back. I live in a very corrupt county. I attorney when I told him where this was stated "that county is the most corrupt I work in. They are all good ole' boys. They do what they want."

I want to be compensated for this bone headed mistake on the courts part.

I made a mistake, I paid

They court made a mistake, they need to pay.
 
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