Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Nebraska

today i went to a police department to get some stuff for my son that is in the state penn. while i was waiting an officer came out took me to a small room and told me there was a warrant for my arrest. i was never showed the warrant. i was then taken to the jail and placed in another tiny room for booking then the officer read me the warrant that was issued on dec 4th 2006 for a failure to appear. when the booking officer took over and was looking for paperwork nothing was found. i told them that i was already arrested once for that warrant and then bailed out and was later sentenced to 10 days jail and the judge let me have work realease and transfer my my time to the county i live in. i was in booking for 2 hours and they even called where i did the time but the case number where i was at today and the case number where i did the time at did not match. when the luetinant came in got some papers and then came back and said he went and talked to the judge and then they released me. i live 45 min away from where this all happened and my ride was almost home when i was released. what i am puzzled about is that last fall a state patrolman pulled me over and ran my name and stuff through the system and came back with nothing then how can there be this warrant from almost 6 yrs ago. would i have a case to sue for the stress i was put through


Asked on 6/14/12, 12:12 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

The police seem to have made an innocent mistake that they corrected fairly quickly. It is very hard to get a judgment against a government agency for something like this. And the individual officers are almost certainly immune unless they had actual knowledge that the warrant had been resolved.

I understand that it was stressful and difficult for you, but I don't see any basis for a lawsuit. Even if you had grounds to sue, your damages would be so low that it would not make sense to hire a lawyer. For the same reason, no lawyer would represent you on a contingent-fee basis.

It's also not clear who the defendant should be: if the police officers genuinely had a report from another agency that said your warrant was still outstanding, then they probably can't be faulted for their actions. You would have to work your way down the chain to figure out who's mistake cause all of this.

Pursuing the case yourself would likely be more aggravation than the arrest. As I said earlier, I doubt you could win. Even if you can, you wouldn't get a very large judgment for a couple of hours of wrongful confinement.

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Answered on 6/14/12, 6:34 pm


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