Reply #47: someone I know was arrested and it was total BS [View All]

on a "minor" charge....
it was a traffic incident...

totally f'ed up story. and my friend (we’ll call him Albert) feels like his is LUCKY now, which trips me out.

It was actually the other guy's (aka idiot a-hole) fault, there were no witnesses, but the cops went on this a-hole's "word".
A-hole tried to get Albert to rear end him on the road, and when that didn't work lied to the cops and said Albert had tried to run him off the road.
This a-hole had even gotten out of his car and threatened my friend! Right in the street!
This a-hole called the cops and they just "showed up", Albert said.
I read the police report. Total bs...and wrong.

The a-hole was not arrested or charged at all...
The officer, after arresting Albert, proceeded to admonish him for his liberal bumper stickers and proselytize all the way to the city jail.
WTF? Really? Yes, really.

Albert said the few hours in the city jail scared the crap out of him. His called his wife to bail him out. He said his wife actually thought he was pranking her when he called to say he was in jail.
Albert said it took him about 5 minutes to convince her that he was not joking.
He got a lawyer and had to pay several thousand dollars to the lawyer and court costs to get the charged dismissed...took about 9 months.

His bail was considered "very low" and an unusual, old amount according by his lawyer, an amount that the lawyer hadn't seen since the 1970's. He said that he thought it was just a token amount and would have no problems, due to the fine amount...thinking that the county didn't think much of the issue because of the amount.
But a weird thing happened when the lawyer went to the DA's office the first time, a few weeks after the arrest for the first court date.
The lawyer assumed that since it was a "nothing" charge (but not to Albert who requires security clearances for his job), that it would be no problem to get it dismissed...since Albert had a spotless record, and the DA probably wouldn't have even looked at the case or waste time on it.
Well guess what? The DA's office was apparently "familiar" with the case. And told his lawyer that they were going to push for a conviction on this one. The minor fee was now changed and upped to the legal $$ limit for that charge that this charge could be before it becomes a felony (some of it would go to the a-hole). The lawyer said he was really surprised that the DA had even bothered to look at the case. The lawyer said that really when he goes to talk to the DA, they haven't even bothered to look at a case like that. He thinks the a-hole called up the DA's office and told them about it and pushed for more money, probably gave a sob story.
The lawyer didn't know that Albert had hired a PI to get info on the a-hole. It made sense that the a-hole would have called the DA's office if he knew people there. Really f'ed up stuff.

We have a mutual PI friend that found out this a-hole used to work for one of the local police departments and was in bankruptcy proceedings. He totally believes that the a-hole was looking for something like this to get money.
A-hole got what he wanted too. Albert thinks he was set up...and I am inclined to agree.
The a-hole probably dropped names with the officer and the DA's office. Un-freakin-believeable.

Albert’s lawyer was able to get the charged dismissed, but the whole thing left him worried...and frankly I think left him with some PTSD.
No one is innocent until proven guilty. No one. Once you get "in the system"...it only matters if you can afford to pay a lawyer to help you get out of the charge. And how well the lawyer knows everyone else at the court house.

I really feel for that boy in the OP story who is now a man. He was accused of murder...and was known to be innocent and was even convicted. How will he live his life, will he even know how to be a man? Poor kid spent his whole growing up time in jail. So sad.
My friend had a "nothing" charge comparatively, and I couldn't believe what he had to go through to clear his name.

After a certain amount of time, his lawyer said he could try to get the arrest removed from his record...expunged...even though that just the arrest on his record by itself would not prevent him from getting his gov't security clearances...his charge was dismissed, so it will be as if it never happened. However, the lawyer said, that even though his record is still clean...if there is every "any questions" a cop might have if he is pulled over...they can still see the arrest.... the lawyer said he's seen people arrested again if there is an arrest on the record, even without convictions.
Scary. This whole thing left Albert a nervous wreck, worried about losing his job.

Albert was not wealthy, but he spent all of his liquid cash to deal with this. I think it was several thousand dollars. If he hadn't had that money, he would have probably had to plead no contest, get a court appointed attorney, and would have probably lost his job with a conviction on his record. Scary, just scary. I think he will have to pay more money to the lawyer to get the arrest expunged.