Call for help, get arrested

I can't believe how berkeleyed up our system is sometimes.

My daughter was assaulted on Tuesday night, and when she called 911 for help, they arrested her.

No, she's not a habitual offender. In fact, she is every parent's dream. An intelligent, straight "A" student who completed her double major undergrad work with a 4.0, and is working on her masters. Fulbright scholar who is tri lingual and has lived in 4 countries. Doesn't drink, smoke, never touched drugs, and chooses her friends carefully. Never been in trouble. I don't even think she's had a speeding ticket.

They put her in shackles and leg irons, threw her in the paddy wagon, chained her to a bed in the hospital, and basically refused to pay any attention to her, including water. They later transferred her (again in leg irons and the paddy wagon) to a 5x5 holding cell with a stench of urine and feces where skeezy creeps oogled her and made offensive comments for several hours while she wept hysterically.

I was tipped of by a phone call from a nurse at the hospital at 1:30 in the morning calling from her personal cell phone in a closet, to avoid being fired.

Turns out Atlanta Metro has a policy that if you call 911 for a domestic dispute, someone is going to jail. They usually arrest both parties and let the judge sort it out. The woman who attacked her was her housemate. That makes it a domestic dispute.

I drove through the night, and then waited for hour after hour of red tape and unwillingness to help, or allow me to post bail. It took 14 hours to get her out of that dung heap.

I got her out and hired an attorney, but I'm being told this is basically a berkeleyed up system and that there is not much that can be done about it.

She's now having flashbacks and can't focus. She thinks she may have to drop out of her graduate program. If she ends up convicted (even if it is a misdemeanor), or drops out of the program, she will loose her scholarship, and may never be able to complete her master's studies.

When did humiliation and abuse become an acceptable response for law enforcement to a cry for help? Why is it acceptable to a modern society to ruin a promising young girl's life? WTF is wrong with us?

I can't tell you how pissed off I am.

Oh wow. Paul, I am so sorry to hear this. If there's anything I can do, do not hesitate.

I would say if she can handle it, contact the local media. It's kind of a scumbag way to do things, but if you go to the media, some high profile shark lawyer will come calling. I'd be willing to bet that the shark might know something said regular attorney doesn't. Sharks are slimy like that, but it comes down to the whole "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" thing.

+1 on the media. They love a story like this plus this gives her ammo in case there are any issues with scholarships because of her mental state.

Holy cow, that is a bad scene. So sorry about that, Paul and I hope it'll work out for your daughter.

I think if your attorney is already telling you that there's not much that can be done about this, I'd have to go with mndsm's suggestion that you need a sharkier attorney and/or support from one of the usual suspects when it comes to civil liberties/civil rights.

BTW, isn't she supposed to get one free phone call?

Did the housemate get arrested too?

I thought it had to be family to be a "domestic dispute".

One of many reasons why I hate ATL.

One time, I didn't even call for help and I got arrested. Turns out... some of the things I did in college were not popular with law enforcement. You don't forget being chained to a bench for a couple hours right away even when you deserve it.

A lesser person than your daughter might sneak up and chain the pumpkin of the arresting officers cruiser to a mailbox and wait nearby for him to drive off in pursuit of the next heinous criminal holding a kegger in State College. In fact, as long as the statute of limitations has run out... I might know someone who has many funny stories that weren't so funny at the time they could share.

This too shall pass.

Yes, the housemate was also arrested. It's SOP for the police. Arrest as many as you can, let the courts sort it out.

Pretty likely there will be no conviction, but apparently things don't always go the way I think they should.

I've been considering the media, but I am not interested in doing anything that could backfire. She's strong, but very vulnerable right now.

spitfirebill wrote: I thought it had to be family to be a "domestic dispute".

Living in the same house makes it a domestic dispute.

Welcome to the new age where the cops have to cover their butts. Mt Pleasant's policy was to arrest whomever wasn't injured. If both parties are then everyone makes a trip in fancy steel bracelets. If no one, then the guy was given the choice of a hotel or a trip to the local jail.

Too many situations were they were called and didn't do anything, only to have to come back later and clean up a murder scene.

Most larger police departments are like this. They let the judges and the DA sort it out.

Sorry to hear your daughter is in this situation. I hope it all works out for her and tell her we said STAY IN SCHOOL!!

Yeah, innocent until proven guilty sounds nice until you really think about what they can and will gladly do to you with no proof of guilt. I am really sorry to hear about this. I assume her first appearance was of no help?

BoxheadTim wrote: BTW, isn't she supposed to get one free phone call?

Yeah. Naive, like me.

Sure she gets a phone call. AFTER she's fully processed and in the system.

If you need medical attention, you can't be fully processed, because you are not at the police station. You are taken to the hospital for treatment. BUT you are ALSO in police custody, therefore the hospital is not authorized to release any information. You are officially in limbo, or perhaps purgatory. Maybe its Guantanamo. You will stay there until you are treated and can be processed. Hope you don't need several weeks of medical care, because if you do, you are officially in limbo until, well... whenever.

It's a great big berkeleying loophole.

Once released from the hospital, you have to be processed. THAT includes photos, finger prints, and a 50 state criminal background check. These things take time.

THEN you can have your phone call.

You can use the pay phone, but they took your belongings (cell phone, money, etc), so you will have to call collect. The phone call will cost $9.99 for the first minute. Don't call someone decent like me who has never been called from the jail, and therefore not approved for pre-payment. By the time the automated system figures out how to charge me, you will be out of time, and disconnected.

Took her 3 tries, at $9.99 each.

Very sorry to hear this Paul.

Nothing useful to add, other than my thoughts are with you and your family.

SVreX wrote: Yes, the housemate was also arrested. It's SOP for the police. Arrest as many as you can, let the courts sort it out. Pretty likely there will be no conviction, but apparently things don't always go the way I think they should. I've been considering the media, but I am not interested in doing anything that could backfire. She's strong, but very vulnerable right now.

S'why I said "if" she could handle it. Once you start a media E36 M3-storm, it's probably a good year before it blows over. Not always the best plan. Though, if she did, and she got a shark, chances are she could get a good amount of cake and not have to worry about the scholorships.

I don't even know where to start. Holy E36M3!

All I can say is try to get her a place of her own once the legal matters are sorted out. No more sharing.

I'm so sorry about this.

The new way of the police is that everyone is a criminal. Hence the arrest, treatment after a call for help, the runaround with the phone call, the lewd comments, etc. I know some police are still peace officers. I hope more strive to be. In this case, her treatment was unconscionable.

I'm sorry I don't have any advice. I think you've done the right thing in lawyering up. Maybe it's time to get a second opinion. That or a lawyer who specializes in this type of law. The only way I know how to find a lawyer like this is by word of mouth.

On a personal note, if she can't focus, is having flashbacks, and this may effect her life into the future...it sounds like this is a traumatic life event. She may need some professional help from a trained therapist. Most health plans cover this very easily and cheaply. I'd talk with some friends or your general practitioner/doctor and ask for a reference. If nothing else, you'll know you did as much as you could to keep this from affecting her life and career into the future.

Again Paul. I'm so sorry she and you are dealing with this.

Thank you.

Good word, but we've got no health insurance. I'm unemployed.

WTF!!?? That is not even wrong.

If good thoughts are worth anything, as a parent, I am sending them your way. There are free crisis hotlines that may be a resource for your daughter. Plus as a student, your daughter may have access to some services through the uni. If you're part of a church, synagogue, etc., ask your minister, rabbi, etc., about resources.

Unbelievable!

How did the living situation come about? Is the housing owned by the school? If it was offsite housing did the school setup the roommate situation? If so then there might be some liability on their part.

Sorry to hear about this mess, it sounds like its completely undeserved.

The one thing I can say that might help is to find a better lawyer. There are probably lawyers that specialize in those type of cases, specifically in that city. perhaps contact a local womens shelter and ask eho they recommend to their clients?

My brother was once wrongly arrested on a weapons offence stemming from a traffic stop that in and of itself wasn't legit. They threw the book at him and they were very creative in piling on as many charges as possible (I presume to have more chances to make something stick). It was an omnishambles. It took a specalist lawyer several years to get my brothers record expunged despite the fact that the case was quickly thrown out .

So my point is find the specialist, it will cost more now, but probably less in the long run, and may be the only way to set things right.

.

Apparently, a false accusation is sufficient to establish probable cause, even if the person making the accusation is the alleged attacker of the victim who placed the 911 call, who is bleeding and crying.

As a person who once may or may not have been chained to a bench some 25yrs ago for something that was kinda trivial...

1) I did engage in some behavior that led LEOs to incarcerate me
2) My mother thought I was innocent. She still does.
3) I was not.

Mothers and their sons, fathers and their daughters. I'm not saying you are wearing blinders here because I really don;t know you or your daughter but I do know parents (including me) can make a lot of excuses that later seem a little naive. If your attorney isn't making eye contact when he says "there isn't much we can do" maybe you need to ask your daughter better questions.

If she was the one that called the police I don't see how she isn't going to get off scott free unless something new evidence turns up. Something other than hearsay by the attacker.

I regret that an innocent person may have been arrested with the attacker but it's a more fair situation than the attacker getting away and the innocent person getting arrested. I had a friend in the second situation, he was arrested because he was the male in the relationship and his girlfriend/roommate wanted him out and lied to the police. The police took her side because the male usually is the abuser of the female.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: I really don;t know you or your daughter...

We'll just leave it at that.

Many of the people who have responded in this thread DO know her. You are WAAY off base.

The truth is always somewhere in-between. The charges against both girls will probably end up dropped. She could try to get the arrest expunged off of her record, but it probably wouldn't be worth the hassle.