[seanhev77]

One day a wildlife officer came to my house to question me about a possible illegal sale of saltwater fish. I thought I had the proper commercial licenses and cooperated with his questions. I felt that I had done nothing illegal but according to him I was missing a permit.

A week later he showed up again and said he got an arrest warrant from the state's attorney. He arrested me and took me to jail. Upon arriving at the intake facility at the jail the correctional officers would not admit me because the arrest warrant did not have the proper seal of authentication/authority from the court. The wildlife officer went to the court while I waited outside of the jail and was able to somehow get a seal.

Was this legal? Was I arrested with an improper arrest warrant? Is this considered to be a false arrest?

[JudyKayTee]

No, it's not a false arrest. You can always go to Court, argue that point and then get re-arrested.

Did you have the proper license?

[seanhev77]

Yes and No. I had the proper licenses to sell fish commercially but apparently I found out that I needed an additional permit to sell the species that I did. It was just a mis-interpretation of the regulations. The regulations are hard to interpret.

[Fr_Chuck]

You will have to argue that the warrant was not proper when they served it.

Not sure about the "seal" since here in the US a warrant is issued for arrest and put into a computer system and the officer does not carry a actual copy with them normally and the jail never looks at a paper copy but they look to be sure it is in their computer system.

And in fact if a officer arrests someone, they merely put them in jail using the officers arrest report pending a first appearance hearing.

[seanhev77]

Thanks for your advice