Court acknowledge error - does this help me?

[Edward1962]

What is the name of your state? TN

My 10 day sentence for Resisting Arrest was later revised to 2 days due to a medical emergency, but the court never communicated this to the sheriffs office, so I was arrested a year later (yesterday) for failure to appear (FTA) for the balance of the sentence, and spent a little over a day in jail, bail denied. The next day I saw a judge who verified the facts and dismissed the case. My questions are:

1. Is this a case of false arrest and false imprisonment (having to go through this because of a clerical error)

2. Will my expenses be reimbursed (I came from CA to spend 2 days vacation, most of which I spent in jail)

3. If I have a case, is there a way to leverage this to drop/reduce/expunge the Resisting Arrest charge for which I was convicted a year ago?

I included additional facts below showing that there was negligence in handling this matter. Your help, particularly on question 3 is of prime importance and I appreciate your assistance.

========

Additional Facts:

1. Court failed to communicate revised sentence to sheriffs office. A judge issued the arrest warrant without reviewing the facts.

2. The officer from the sheriffs office followed me to the courthouse where facts could have checked with court clerk. The officer also asked me to retrieve some papers (given to me from the sheriffs office) which I had placed in my vehicle.

3. My address, phone number, employer name and other current information was available in my record with the sheriffs office, no one even called me about it.

 

[seniorjudge]

You have no case.

Google sovereign immunity.

 

[Edward1962]

You have no case.

So there are no checks and balances in the system to compensate for this. Does this immunity allow courts to violate people. Sounds to me like a foundation of errogance and dictatorship.

My case involves negligence of a department which did 60 minutes of work to get me arrested, but refused to do 2 minutes of work to get the issue cleared.

 

[Kane]

Sorry Edward. If you're looking to sue the judge, the county, or whoever, talk to a civil lawyer or post in the civil forums. I'm not a civil lawyer, but to my understanding (successfully) suing the police is difficult, and suing a judge is all but impossible.

Then there's the issue of damages. What is a day of your time worth? $100? $500? It's a small claims case. It'll cost a couple of hundred dollars just to file the paperwork. Not something many civil lawyers would be interested in.

Being a convicted criminal won't help you either. Many jurors will figure, "If he hadn't been committing crimes, he wouldn't have been in the situation in the first place."

Like I said, talk to a civil lawyer. Or ten of them. But I think you're going to find out you're wasting your time.

 

[Edward1962]

Thanks Kane. You are right.

I met a talkative officer today who told me the same thing, he also said that the Sheriff got an unserved arrest warrant on every third person in town, served on as-needed basis, due to jail over-crowding.

 

[cepe10]

Failure to follow procedure may leave the court and sheriff without immunity in this case..

Here is a case where the officer and city were found liable for an accident...

While the brevity of the order in the present case is troubling, our de novo review of this matter enables this Court to determine conclusively that the allegedly negligent action did not result from the manner in which a formulated policy was implemented . In the language of Beckley, "although this incidental action occurred within the scope of employment, it was not so closely related or necessary to effectuating the . . . [investigation] as to be considered a component of 'the method of providing law enforcement protection.'" 189 W. Va. at 98, 428 S.E.2d at 321. We consequently reverse the summary judgment granted by the lower court, find that the City of Dunbar is not entitled to immunity under West Virginia Code § 29-12A-5(a)(5), and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

You could talk to the prosecutor about the false arrest since it was an unlawfuyl act by the court and sheriff to see if you can leverage soemthing on the previous counts...

 

[Edward1962]

CEPE10, you are right. I will visit that town in few weeks in hope they will do the same mistake again, because then they will be up to their knees in negligence.

You see, my sentence was supposed to be on weekends, so they will try to get me for each visit. (sentence was revised to one weekend).

I am taking 2 months away from work and allocated $10,000 to resolve this. I am sure that there are a handful of court employees who would offer their assistance for that sum, but I would like to do it the right way. I thank you for your support.