Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Hello,

I reside in Sebastopol, California. I was recently pulled over and arrested. First off I am a victim of identity theft and have been dealing with it for years. I have submitted police reports and have a a consumer lawyer. I was pulled over Feb 6 2011 on a simple traffic stop because i did not have the registration sticker on my license plate. The police officer was about to let me go because I was post op and told him I was in a lot of pain. He asked if he could search my truck and I said no. He then decided to run my driver license for priors and I informed him I am a victim of identity theft and that nothing should come up but if it does it most likely is not mine. He ran my DL and immediately cuffed me and I asked him why he was arresting me. He said I had a warrant and i asked him for what? He never answered my question but said it has something to do with being arrested 8 years ago. I told him that I had that case closed and taken care of. He also said that I am in violation of Parole so I no longer have rights and he is allowed to search my truck. I also am not on Parole and this is showing up because of my identity theft. I have never been to prison or jail for more than a couple hours. I have never been on probation or parole. My current employer would not allow me to work here as I work for a government contractor. Anyway the police officer found marijuana in a garbage bag I had picked up. The amount wasn't enough to get me in trouble but he did give me an infraction.

When we got to the jail and after 2 hours of researching my warrant apparently I had missed a court date on a misdameanor charge for harrassing text messages. I am still friends with the person who made the report to the police because she did it out of spite. She wanted to get back at me because I would not sleep with her so she erased her messages to me and showed the police the ones I wrote back. I had also called her because she was harrassing my family members at 11pm and I called to ask her to stop. Apparently, the police was already at her house and they answered and told me we should both stop contacting each other.

Forward a month later we are friends again because there was never an issue just your normal fight between friends and since she didnt get her way she has a history of using the law to get back at people. Anyway, at that point since we were now friends and hanging out I never knew or thought there was a case or charges against me. Especially since a court appearance notice was never sent to me. Apparently, I had a court appearance in December but never went because it was sent to the wrong address. This is even after I cooperated with the police and told them my true address which is stated in the police report. However on the cover sheet the court appearance notice was sent to a different address. So I never knew to appear and clear this misunderstanding.

So because of this I end up spending the night in jail 24 hours after surgery. I post a 5000 bail and I hire a lawyer who did in fact get my warrant recalled due to the wrong address issue.

My question is do I get compensated for the bail I posted? I used a bails bondsman and only paid 500 but do I get that back? Also, I now have an infraction because I believe my truck was searched illegaly. What do I do about that? In addition, my truck was towed because the road on where I was pulled over is too narrow for my truck. This was the police departments argument. Due to posting bail and the excessive towing fees and storage I could not afford to get my truck. So now the bank has it. What do I do? I have lost a lot including a week of work because my recovery from surgery went bad. I was sitting in a cold cell when I should have been home in bed. This all happened for two reasons. 1. My so called friend used the law because she never got what she wanted from me. 2. The system screwed up and never even gave me a chance to appear in front of a judge because the notice was sent to the wrong address. I never even knew there was a case against me because I was told nothing was going to happen by the police officer and then the so called victim and I became friends again. In fact, I helped her gather money for her cousins funeral arrangements. So I never thought in my wildest dreams that this would happen.

So what do I do? I am out 1500 dollars and missed time at work plus I no longer have my truck. The warrant was recalled and exonorated? I am not sure what that means. Please help.

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