[derty]

A local guy went into the ditch. He called for a tow truck. The tow truck notified the sheriffs office. The deputy gave the guy 5 citations. He would not sign any of these so off to the pokey (no DL, no insurance, failure to maintain control, couple others).

So he spent several days in jail and then another man filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus action against the sheriff. The cost to file was $185. The writ was issued to the sheriff and the body produced on Tuesday in court. There were around 12 observers (me included). The prisoner stuck to one basic line: " If I appeared to consent to anything in conjunction with these charges I have never consented and do not consent now."

The prisoner (identified by orange suit, shackles) was asked if the application for writ of habeas corpus was approved by him. His response: " It was my will."

The county attorney questioned whether the third party applying for the writ had standing to do so. The judge also questioned this guys standing but said the statute said that anybody could file for the writ although he thought that this was intended for insane people and minors. They appeared to let this question slide.

Before leaving the topic of the status of the person submitting the application for the writ the judge made a comment that seemed to indicate he had a knowledge of the vendetta that had existed for the past 20 years between the attornor and the one who applied for the writ. The judge was not local and did not seem to be impressed with the local attornor (a former county attornor).

The judge next asked the prisoner if he was the one named in the citations. He was asked this question several times and he would respond only "I am the trustee of *** [insert name here]"

This was not a satisfactory response for the judge as the prisoner was not volunteering to animate the position of the legal fiction charged. To clear up the question of identity the judge asked the attornor if the deputy sheriff or anyone who could identify the prisoner was present in court. Turns out it was the deputy sheriff's day off so there was an hour adjournment of the proceedings while he was contacted and traveled to the court.

When called back into session the deputy took the stand and identified the victim (prisoner) as the "person" he cited. There were several more attempts to get the victim to consent to a contract but he did a good job of sticking to his mantra "I do not consent". In the end the guy was released on his own recognizance without posting bond. Although he did nod his head when told "You must appear on the court date to hear these charges or a warrant will be issued for your arrest and you will be charged with contempt" (another contract offer which he appeared to accept) the prisoner ended by saying on the record " If I appeared to consent to anything in conjunction with these charges I have never consented and do not consent now."

With this he was declared free to go after spending 7 days in jail. Future court date set for early January. There was additional paperwork that had been submitted to get the filing fee returned. The attornor made some comments that indicated he took exception to the return of this fee.

I have to admit that the judge worked pretty hard to get the victim to engage in a contract. I think he closed the proceedings without succeeding.

And the rest of the story ... This was a black guy, one that the system had been set up to "protect".