My Night In Jail Part Two

My Night In Jail Part Two

We pulled up to the Scott County Jail and the nice cop announced he had a “cooperative female with a warrant” that he was bringing in. Well at least I was cooperative. And clearly a female. They opened the the giant garage doors and let us enter. They came around and let me out of the car and brought me inside where I was asked to remove my jacket, shoes, jewelry. They asked me to remove my piercings. Asked if I had anything in my pockets etc. Searched my purse, looked through every nook and cranny. Writing down every item in it (which included: ramen noodles x2 ~ which still makes me laugh to this day). They asked if I had any cash and I stated yes, I had about $300 cash in my wallet. But wait! There’s no wallet in my purse. Ugh! When I took my license out I sat it on the seat next to me, which meant it was still in my car. They ask me to explain my prescription in my purse, which is Naproxen, a common anti inflammatory like Aleeve. They put it all into a bin. Ok, I guess I passed this test. The female officer proceeds to (very roughly) pat me down searching EVERY inch of my body. Wow. Not the way I had hoped to be felt up on a Saturday night.

She then brings me a pair of “slippers” which were basically plastic shower flip flops and hands me a scratchy blanket. I am escorted to a holding cell by the male officer and locked inside, informed they will be with me as soon as they can to process me. It is so cold. Cold cement walls. Cold stainless steel bench. Cold cement floor. Bright lights shining on me. I can hear all the chatter going on outside the cell but can’t see anything. This is so surreal. No clock. No phone. No facebook to update my status. Nothing but me and the walls and the disorderly drunk in the cell next to mine. Based on the conversations I can overhear with the officer and a doctor, he apparently has a BAC of .28 and they are worried he might die in his cell.  Awesome.

I have no idea how long I have been in my cell. I keep hearing chatter outside, and occasionally the male officer checks in on my thru the slit of a window in my cell. I am shaking. My entire body. Head to toe. Iam fidigiting like crazy. I have no idea what’s going on. How could the reporter from the paper not have found my warrant when she ran my background check while I was running for City Council?? Would have been nice to know instead of ending up in JAIL. Ugh. Thoughts running through my head and they won’t shut off. Nothing I really remember, just knowing that I was shaking and thinking and shaking and thinking. Worrying. Trying to calm myself down from having an anxiety attack. I have never been locked into the confines of a room knowing that I can’t get out and have no idea when I might be released or what is even going on.

Finally the officer comes and lets me out. He takes me over to his desk to process me. I look at the clock. It is 3:30a.m. I have been in jail for an hour and a half at this point. He asks me a series of questions including: do you have any tattoos? Any identifiable markings on your body? And known alias’? Holy crap, I am so being treated like a criminal. What is going on here?! I am told in order to get out of jail I need to call someone to bail me out with $270 in cash. I ask if I can call a Bail Bond since it’s 3:30 a.m. I am informed it would take a lot longer and am better off calling a friend. They are kind enough to let me look through my cellphone for phone numbers. Fingers shaking, I call my friend Liz. I know she keeps her phone in the living room at night so I am skeptical that she will even answer. No answer. I call her husband’s phone. Still no answer. I have no one else to call. So I try hers again and Tom answers it. I completely lose it and start bawling. “Tom, it’s Amy. Can I talk to Liz?” Liz gets on the phone “what’swrong?” I tell her “I’m in trouble….. I’m in jail” only an ever so slight pause before “are you serious?”  “yes”.  “ok, where are you? We’re on our way”. I tell her I need $270 to get bailed out. She said not a problem, they were on their way. THANK GOD! I am crying my eyes out and the officer informs me that he now has to take my mugshot. AWESOME. I look like a hooker with mascara running down my cheeks. This is SO embarrassing. He is completely unphased by my crying so I assume they deal with it often.

The officer brings me back to my cell at about 4a.m. I sit there waiting for Tom and Liz, figuring they will be about 20-30 minutes. It feels like FOREVER. I hear my name in the other room, stating that my bail has been paid. Oh good, I’ll be out soon. More waiting… and waiting…. Finally the officer comes and lets me out. We go back to his desk where he makes me start signing release paperwork. I am handed a sheet of paper and told that by signing it I am pleading guilty. UM WAIT. WHAT?! Guilty? Back that boat up! He can tell by the look on my face that I am confused. He explains that if I do not want to plead guilty I can schedule a court date to plead my case in frontof a judge. I inform him that yes, of course that’s what I want to do. Well, he says. Then you’re going to have to get bonded out for $700 by a Bail Bonds. Wait, what?! Why wasn’t any of this explained to me ahead of time? My friends have already driven here in the middle of the night, brought the money and paid to have me bailed out. The lady officer walks over and chimes in that if I just sign the paperwork my case will be closed, over and done with.{UNTRUTH #4}  I repeat what she just said to me and verify that my warrant will indeed be gone and I won’t have to worry about being arrested again and she stated yes, and I will be able to leave immediately and get on my way. The time is now 5:45a.m. and I am more than excited to be done with this and go home and get my car out of the impound lot. I sign the paperwork and they bring me my belongings and let me get dressed and escort me out of the building.

Tom and Liz are waiting for me outside the door and they both rush up to me and give me hugs. I tell them we have to figure out how toget my car out of impound as we walk out to their car. Once inside the privacy of their car they ask what happened, thinking for sure I had been arrested for drunk driving. I explain my story to them and they’re shocked. We decide to head to Ihop for breakfast and kill some time before I can get my car out of it’sown jail (which is another $150 I have to borrow from my friends since my wallet is in my car. Ugh!)

BUT WAIT! It's NOT over yet!!

{to be continued......}

 
Photo by: Candy Coughlin

My Night In Jail Part One

My Night In Jail Part One

I am finally able to put into words and share my story of being arrested and going to jail. Since I believe that everything happens for a reason, I know there is a lesson to be learned here. While I am able to laugh at it now, it wasn’t very funny when it happened and seriously freaked me out. My journey with the court system has left me saddened and questioning “innocent until proven guilty”.

Let me give you the background on what happened: back in May 2011 I attended the Forever TV red carpet event. I had a great evening inMinneapolis with friends and colleagues. I knew that I had a headlight out on my car (my Hyundai has a known issue with headlights burning out every six months. I try to stay on top of it, but sometimes I’m not able to fix them immediately. My bad. I know.) so I was careful and only had a few drinks all evening.(I’m the type of person that can have a ton of fun without drinking, so it’s not an issue for me!) As I was turning onto my street, I saw a cop, he immediately whipped around and turned his lights on.

Of course he did, it was after 1a.m. bar time! He pulled me over, kindly told me I had a headlight out and asked for my insurance. I opened my glovebox and pulled out over a dozen insurance cards. I had every single year except my current one…. Which is SO weird. He went back to his car for a bit before bringing me a “fix it” ticket. Here’s the thing: I remember this conversation so vividly it gets me upset all over again. He told me (and I’m paraphrasing of course) “I have to give you a fix it ticket. There’s no fine or anything but I need to make sure you fix your headlight have your insurance up to date. Have a nice night drive safe”. Ok no worries, I fixed the headlight the next day and already knew my insurance was current, but stopped in and got a new card for my glovebox.

Fast forward to the weekend before Christmas. I am at a friend’s party and once again know I have a headlight out. I chose to only have a drink early in the evening because I know it is a Saturday night and I have a headlight out (again!). With my track record of getting pulled over for headlights I know the routine well. I leave the party at 1a.m. for my hour drive home. I am less than a mile from my house when  a cop pulls up behind me. I know it’s only a matter of time before the lights are going to come on. Sure enough. I get pulled over alongside one of the busiest parts of town at 2a.m. Nice. Oh, and did I mention I have my logo on my car too?! Whatever, no big deal. I already know I have a headlight out and am not at all worried about a breathalyzer knowing I’d pass with flying colors.

So when the cop is taking forever in his car and another cop with lights on comes and pulls up behind him I am quite certain they think I am drunk. Oh and let me back up a notch to the party. I am a single lady and have to dress a little sexy for this party. So I have a super cleavagy shirt on and big earrings and 4” heels on. Ok back to the 2^nd cop pulling up: the original cop comes back to my car and asks me to step outside. He says “you’re not in any trouble or anything, I just need to ask you to step out of the car” {UNTRUTH #1}. Ok, I’m guessing they’re going to make me take a sobriety test. No big deal. I get out of the car in my 4” heels and big earrings and the cop informs me that he has to arrest me. UM WHAT?! I could not have heard that correctly.They hadn’t even asked me to walk the line or anything yet. And I’m NOT DRUNK. Not even a little bit. I look at him with shock on my face and say “what?” he informs me that I had a court date back in July for no proof of insurance and I didn’t show up. Therefore I have a warrant out for my arrest. WTF?! Am I being punked?

He asks me to walk over to his car and that he has to frisk and cuff me. Holy crap I hope no one I know is driving by and witnessing this, as they would for sure think I was getting a DWI at this time of night. The cop informs me that it’s not a big deal, I can bail myself out of jail and be out in under an hour {UNTRUTH #2} After I am in the backseat of his squad car he beginsto look up my case. He informs me that they tried to send me a notice but didn’t have my current address {UNTRUTH #3} and asked if I had recently moved?! Um, nope. Lived in the same place for 10 years now. It’s current on my license.

Now I have to say that the cop was extremely kind to me. He may have led me astray a bit about the procedures I was about to face, but he was nice to me and made me feel slightly at ease when I really wanted to freak the fuck out. (I wonder if he's single?!) 

{to be continued.......}

photo by: Candy Coughlin
http://candysphotography.com 

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