Q: I was arrested on a warrant that was refused by the DA and was to be recalled by the issuing JP. Do I have any recourse?
I went to get finger printed for a FBI background check and was arrested on March 6 2019 at the Cedar Park Police Station for a warrant that was issued out of Grimes County in 2015, but the DA refused to prosecute it then and it was to be recalled. I have received a letter from the DA stating the warrant was refused but yet I was still arrested in Cedar Park for voluntarily going into the police station to get finger printed. I lost 2 days of work trying to clear this up and also out the bail I had to post even though I never should have been taken in. What are my options to get compensated for the time lost, my bail money, defamation of character and mental/physical health issues this has caused me?
A:
Talk to a civil rights attorney that handles "Section 1983" lawsuits against the police.
It sounds like Cedar Park just arrested on a warrant they found in the system, which is what the are supposed to do. The responsibility of recalling the warrant should have fallen to someone in the Grimes County.
The cops generally have "sovereign immunity" in situations where they simply make mistakes, which means you can't sue them for money. However, they can be liable if they intentionally targeted you for mistreatment. My hunch is that they'll claim immunity based on a mistake, something like an assistant DA asked an investigator with the DA's office to work it out with the Sheriff's department and the magistrate that signed the warrant, but that something fell through the administrative cracks.
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