Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Nov 1, 2013 15:29:48 GMT -5
If the DA wrongly issues a warrant for your arrest & you spend time in jail as a result of their mistake, is there any recourse? Or are you just kind of SOL?
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Nov 1, 2013 15:48:24 GMT -5
SOL. DA's are immune from recourse for any action they take in acting for the prosecution.
Even prosecutors who willfully hide evidence that would prove a person innocent and seek the death sentence for the person they know to be innocent are immune from recourse.
There's a great article about it that I'll find the link to.
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shanendoah
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Post by shanendoah on Nov 1, 2013 16:05:14 GMT -5
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Nov 1, 2013 16:20:24 GMT -5
That is what I figured. You know how people get all sue happy & everyone is suggesting a lawsuit for the time in jail. In this case it was more of a paperwork screwup, IMO. But, when it is all done there will be at least 3 nights served in jail that never should have happened.
Our court system has serious flaws.
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8 Bit WWBG
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Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Nov 2, 2013 14:24:20 GMT -5
I thought I'd seen cases where some deal is reached. The DA may be immune from legal recourse, but wouldn't the facts coming to light make the DA and/or other city officials look quite bad? If the cause was slipshod work, couldn't that knowledge delay or jeopardize other cases too -- if I were a defendant, I'd cite the recent screwup as justification for extra thorough reviews. Surely a payout of some kind in exchange for silence is cheaper than the bad press?
Granted, 3 nights in jail is a far lower inconvenience than say, 3 years!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2013 9:25:37 GMT -5
Is this in the states?
You can file a complaint against the county or state. I've seen several where awards are made dependent on the negligence/carelessness involved. Every county has their own rules and procedures about how you file against them. The bigger issue is that it is nearly impossible to find an attorney that will go up against the county attorneys due to the personal career impact on them.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Nov 4, 2013 15:21:32 GMT -5
Yeah this was in the states. It is kind of a moot point because I finally got to talk to the guy this happened to & he has no interest in persuing it. I think he is worried they could backtrack & said he should have been arrested after all, which would be way worse than just losing 4 days because of time in jail. It was just all his crazy friends that were thinking he needs to sue & I had some conversations with them. Basically it was a combination of bad luck & I am going to assume honest mistake on the DAs part. He was under probation/deferred sentence & about 60 days before it ended he had a court date. In court the DA said all terms had been met & just don't get in trouble for 60 more days & you are good. Well between the court date & the end of the terms that DA left the office & a new one took the case. When the new DA completed their final review of the case, they apparently missed that previously he had been told everything was done & he was good. They decide terms weren't met & issue a warrant, but no one had any idea that this occurred or that there was a warrant. The bad luck part is he was out of state when he was pulled over & learned he had a warrant. In state this probably could have been cleared up in 12 hours, but out of state means he had no way to contact his lawyer. So he has 3rd parties trying to contact his lawyer & figure out what the hell happened. In the mean time he sits because the county with the warrant isn't going to do anything on their end until he is extradited & in the local jail. And the jail where he is being held doesn't know much of anything except the warrant exists, so he couldn't even figure out why he was actually arrested. So before it was all cleared up & warrant released & out of state jail made aware that the warrant was released 3 nights had passed.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Nov 4, 2013 15:47:57 GMT -5
I had a friend who spent 1 night in jail because of something similar. I asked her if she was pissed off and she said she was just so relieved to be out she couldn't even feel angry. She said that 24 hours had her atoning for anything and everything she had ever done.
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Angel!
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Post by Angel! on Nov 4, 2013 15:53:53 GMT -5
I had a friend who spent 1 night in jail because of something similar. I asked her if she was pissed off and she said she was just so relieved to be out she couldn't even feel angry. She said that 24 hours had her atoning for anything and everything she had ever done. Yeah, he called it a humbling experience. And he was worried that there was something he wasn't aware of & that it was a legitimate warrant. So it was a relief to find out for certain it was a mistake.
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