Well, first time being arrested for me.

A police officer just came to my house, and arrested me for a "failure to appear" for a ticket I received on July 4, 2010 on the lake. The ticket on the lake was for, "Failure to yield orange flag while skier in the water". The ticket was only $100 and I just totally forgot about it. I received the initial ticket on the boat, and that was it. No notices in the mail or anything at all.

I was arrested, and when I got to the booking station I asked to see the warrant.
The warrant had no signature on it, and no judge name at all. It was just a computer print out, he said the county where I received the ticket has the warrant. They told me numerous times that they do not have to show me the judges signature. I asked the officer for some water at this time, and he said his machine was broken. So its been an hour with no water and I live in Arizona and it was 103 today. I was dehydrated at this point, and the back of the cop car was not cool.

After booking, I was taking to the detention center where immediately I asked for water, and they also said their machine was broken. After search, pat down, and finger printer I was forced to sit in the waiting area for 3 hours. I asked for water during this time, and was pointed to the sink in the cell right next to the toilet.

After my bond was paid, the lieutenant made sure that I was the right person and verified my information. He refused to give a copy of the warrant, and said it was procedure. I was arrested without shoes, and when they processed me they said they could not release me without shoes as that was procedure. Well, they lieutenant made a big deal about my girlfriends car being 30 feet away and said I don't need them and sent me on my way. During this whole ordeal, they never once looked at my ID or verified who I was other than oral. I was no trouble to them, and listened to them 100%

Is there anything I can do to get out of this or get my fine lowered? There is no proof of who was driving the boat. There was no copy of the warrant given to me, the warrant that was shown to me had no signature or judges name on it. And to top this all off... THEY GAVE ME NO PAPERWORK! NOTHING other than the receipt that shows I paid my bail and my processing inventory checklist. No court date, no nothing. If I plead not guilty, most likely the sheriff that issued the ticket wont show up. If the case gets dismissed, is there anyway I can get my photo and fingerprints removed from the DPS database?

Thanks for your help guys. I hope I got all the details!

They don't need to send a notice in the mail. The ticket handed to you WAS the notice.


Warrants are procedural paperwork for law enforcement. If you want to see it, the process is for you to request discovery. Unless you do that, they don't have to show you anything.

That's correct. The ORIGINAL warrant will be held in the warrants division of the county sheriff's office where the warrant originated. All other agencies get is the notification via the NCIC computer system that the warrant exists. AND, the originating agency confirms the warrant to the agency that is arresting you, giving them the authority to make the arrest on behalf of the county that wants you.


I'll bet they looked up your driver license photo - that's pretty standard procedure. But once you TELL them that you're the person, they don't have to go on more than that. If you want to try to say now that you're NOT that person, the time to do so will be in court.


Work with a criminal defense attorney who practices in the criminal courts in the county that issued the ticket and the warrant. They will be in the best position to know how much the local prosecutors are willing to deal.

Other than the officer writing YOU the ticket. If you want to claim that someone else was driving the boat and the officer cited the wrong person, that too is an issue to bring up in court.

And there won't be until you (or your attorney) request it via the formal process of discovery as part of the defense of your case.


Every jurisdiction works differently - some courts with consistent scheduling provide a court date upon release, in others the case goes to the clerk's office and they schedule and send out a notice to appear. If you don't know when you're supposed to be in court, you need to contact the clerk's office ASAP and find out.


Why would you think that?


If all charges are dropped you can apply to have the arrest record expunged.

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