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
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Read part two: http:// bit.ly/wCBGuc
Read part three: http:// bit.ly/yiiCRZ
