11 Jailed for court error

[MYSONSDAD]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fcourtwoes05dec05,0,1103020.story

Court confusion lands 11 in jail

By Robert Perez
Orlando Sentinel
Posted December 5 2004

SANFORD · After being directed to Courtroom 1B, the six men and five women
waited Friday for a judge to hear their cases. And they waited and waited,
but their names were never called.

Meanwhile, in an adjoining courtroom not 100 feet away, Seminole County
Judge John R. Sloop was waiting for the 11 defendants to appear before
him. When they didn't show up, he signed warrants for their arrests.

By the time the 11 finally discovered that they had been misdirected by
court personnel and asked to appear before the judge to explain what had
happened, he would not see them and ordered their arrests.

"When the officers came out, they had handcuffs," said Irving Merced, who
was in court on a ticket for driving without a license. "I thought, `I'm
getting arrested? Why?'"

Before everything was straightened out, the defendants spent eight hours
Friday in a Seminole County Jail cell.

Many of the defendants were angry and some began to cry as they were taken
into custody, Merced said.

"I'm hungry, I'm tired and I'm disgusted," said Frantarshia Coleman, after
she was released from jail Friday night. "This is ridiculous. This is
disgusting."

Coleman, 33, of Orlando was in court on a ticket for not having her
registration and proof of insurance. She was quick to pull out a wrinkled,
yellow traffic ticket indicating her court date in Courtroom 1B. She and
the others were supposed to be in 1A.

Theresa DeClue, 28, of Heathrow, and Aileen Nunez, 24, of Orlando, also
recalled their shock at being jailed.

"I really thought, `This is a joke. This can't be happening,'" DeClue
said.

Nunez said she would contact a lawyer.

"I hope that judge gets fired," she said.

Nunez and the others would have stayed in jail longer -- likely overnight
-- had Sloop not signed paperwork later in the day allowing them to be
released without having to pay bail. It is unclear why Sloop reversed his
decision. Attempts to reach Sloop were not successful.

About the time that Sloop was reversing himself, Circuit Judge James
Perry, chief judge of the 18th Judicial Circuit, took similar action to
make sure the 11 would be released Friday.

"When I was made aware of this, I tried to reach Judge Sloop," Perry said
late Friday. "When I was unable to reach him, I took steps to make sure
they were released on their own recognizance."

Perry would not discuss Sloop's handling of the case or whether he planned
to speak about it to Sloop next week. When asked, Perry said he would not
have handled the issue the same way as Sloop.

"Children learn what they live"