In my previous house, in 2001, the alarm went off and the police were sent out. I do not recall receiving a fine although I know that a fine can be sent out in this case. My wife and I split up that summer and I may not have always seen the mail.
On Christmas Eve 2009, upon returning home from a flight, I was pulled aside by customs and arrested for this unpaid fine. They were excellent but said I had to wait for the police to come with a warrant. I have travelled extensively over the last 8 years.
I now have a court date for February to go pay this fine. Is there not a statute of limitations for 8 1/2 years having gone by? I'm okay paying a fine but really how much effort went into "finding" me?

Warrants never die. They live forever. I don't know at what point the warrant was issued but it really doesn't matter. It apparently was issued prior to you being stopped - or you wouldn't have been stopped.

Nope. You clearly don't understand what a Statute of Limitations is. That's not uncommon since many people don't.

SOLs give a time within when legal action must be taken. As long as the appropriate legal action is taken within the prescribed time then SOL no longer applies.

What probably happened in your case, was that a fine was issued and a date to appear was scheduled. When you failed to appear, you were found guilty and the fine issued. The date the hearing was scheduled the SOL stopped because legal action was taken.

What has also probably happened is that municipality that issued the fine recently computerized they records and the warrant was listed on your record. So when you went through customs, the outstanding warrant finally showed up and Customs had to deal with it.

And with most warrants, unless you are a dangerous person, they don't go looking for you, they wait till you are stopped for a traffic ticket, stopped trying to fly, or some other ID check. Since warrants never die, no problem

Hello j:

I'm having a hard time believing that a civil fine got turned into a criminal warrant... I used to be in the alarm business. They would falsely go off and people would be fined... But it was CIVIL, and one could NEVER get arrested for it...

If I was you, I'd visit a lawyer.

excon

Thanks to all replies. I certainly will talk with a lawyer. It is sad to think that this is the course of action. Even though I sat at customs on Christmas Eve, I actually felt bad for the officers who brought the warrant and customs officials. This is a waste of their time. I was read my rights, frisked against the wall and because I was cooperative, he said he wouldn't hancuff me. Instead of going to court in 6 weeks, it really is too bad that there wasn't simply a way to pay the fine. Again a poor use of the court system.

Never did hear what that fine was for

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

never did hear what that fine was for

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Hello Padre:

Probably a false alarm. They fine people for that... But they DON'T throw 'em in the pokey for it.

excon

Or of course if he did not pay, they issue a summons to appear in court, if he does not appear, they do a beanch warrant for failure to appear.

It used to be that most local bench warrants did not even show up on NCIC but after 911 and computer linking, most do now.