I knew a case years ago where a man was in jail for back child support and was working to pay it off under the Huber law. So he would be transported by a deputy to a place to work and then picked up when his shift ended and returned to jail. But there were 2 other people with the same name that lived within 50 miles of this town. Both were also older than him by several years. One day the man was told he couldn't go to work the next day because he had to be in court regarding a reckless driving charge. Of course this was a mystery to him since he had been in custody for several months and not driving.
He asked to know the date of the violation. It came back as a date during which he was in custody. It took the cops all day arguing among themselves but they finally realized that the physical description of the violator didn't come close to matching the man they had in custody for months working under the Huber law. It turned out that when the traffic cop began punching in the name into the computer he got the list of the 3 people with that name but he chose the wrong one and never verified it against the actual drivers license. But it gets worse.
So the guy in custody was told by the cops about their mistake and he figured that this small town bunch would figure it out. But much to his surprise a few weeks later he was told he was being taken to court on an arrest warrant for failure to appear on the traffic ticket. So he goes to court and being a small town it was the same judge who handled the child support cases. The judge began to proceed to pile a fine and more jail time on to this guy when the bailiff stepped forward and told the judge about the snafu. The judge was still intent on proceeding, remember it is a small town, and claimed that it was not up to the cops to rectify the mistake but rather the incarcerated person. So the judge put off the matter for another hearing date.
But here is how it resolved. The man called his State Representative and told him what was happening. The Rep called the County and began to ask questions. A day later the man in custody was given a copy of a dismissal letter from the court that included the explanation of the mistake. The man in custody didn't know it but that County was pushing for a chunk of state money for a new jail renovation/expansion and it just so happened that State Representative was on the committee to say yes or no to the project.
So you think the story with this County would be over. But it wasn't. The total amount of past due child support was a bit over $600 and the man was behind because he had been part of a cut at where he worked and he hadn't been able to find other work yet during a bad job market and his unemployment check was not enough to cover rent and support. So the court case which saw the man into custody to begin with had originally started with the County issuing a warrant for arrest. But the man had arranged the court hearing date in lieu of being arrested on a warrant. So the hearing took place and he was in custody as described. He fulfilled paying the $600 dollars and served 6 months. He then was thankfully able to get hired and he continued to be current on his support payments until the child reached majority age and the support requirement ended. So what was it that wasn't "over" with this County?
Many years later this man was out one night in a bar in another town. The local cops came in looking for underage drinkers and began demanding ID's. The man was in his 30's at the time but they asked him for his ID. When they ran the ID in their system they came back and arrested the man and told him he had an open warrant for arrest for child support in that other County. Yes that's right. The cops/County prosecutor never killed the original warrant from years ago despite the man having voluntarily come to a hearing, served his time, paid his support and never violated again. So the arresting jurisdiction was going to arrange transport to the other County but it was close to shift change and near dawn. So there was delay. Thankfully when the arresting County called the warrant issuing County it was now day shift and the issuing County recognized how old the warrant was and called the County prosecutor to check the validity. Thankfully it got killed but not before being arrested, embarrassed in front of friends and spending almost 8 hours in jail for something that never should have happened. So you would think that this would end this man's nightmare with this County especially since he hadn't lived there in years and had no intention of setting foot there ever again. But you would be wrong.
All through this period after the man was in jail for the back child support he worked at mostly low level jobs and he would adjust his withholding to max out his check and then pay in any taxes he owed at the end of the year. So long after his support obligation had ended and a couple of years after the false arrest the man had a better paying job and so he was coming up to a year in which he would get his first tax refund in many years. But he did not get his refund. He got a letter from the IRS indicating that they had, as part of a back child support enforcement request from the County, had sent the refund amount to the County. Now surely after all of the foregoing you would think that a simple phone call would take care of it all and the error corrected. You would be wrong. The County insisted it had a right to the money. They had no explanation of how they had let a supposedly owed balance go for years without trying to collect. So the man had to pay for a printout of 14 years worth of County records as to payments, dates etc. and then had to file an action with the County Court in order to get his refund. The County Prosecutor actually made the man make his case in court and the judge, now a different one than before, was flabbergasted. Ordered that the County immediately that day cut the man a check.
Any assumption that there is competency, accuracy or willing accountability in the conduct of cops, courts etc. is a bad assumption to make.
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