Location: Illinois
I am currently on probation. I had an issue with finding an acceptable address to give to the probation dept. I didnt want to be arrested and taken to jail for being homeless so instead opted to not go in to the office to report when scheduled. After 5 or 6 weeks a warrant was issued. About a week after the warrant was issued I went to an already scheduled court date for probation review( they have you appear every month while on probation). At the court date the warrant was quashed. Three hours or so after the court appearance I was pulled over by the state police because I was pushing my bike down the road as I had run out of gas. After running my name the officer says to me, ” good thing you got that warrant taken care of this morning”, and I was free to go.
Here’s where it gets interesting..
At around 6am the following day, I hears some loud banging and a voice saying” US MARSHALS! Wet509 had friends staying that night as well as some people.we rent to upstairs. The marshals then round us all up, put me in cuffs, and proceeded to lead my friends, my wife, and myself out of the house at gunpoint. My neighbors all saw this happening. When my wife asked them to produce the warrant the cop says “we don’t have time for that shit. As this is all happening, I asked one of the marshals why I was being arrested. He then p proceeds to check his phone only to discover that in fact did NOT have a warrant for my arrest. They then take the cuffs off and leave my property.
The marshals were at that time conducting a sweep of my neighborhood and arresting anyone who had a warrant . I know this because I had a couple friends that were picked up on old warrants that same day.
So here’s the weird part…
If the state police knew that the warrant was quashed just 2 or 3 hours after court , how could the US marshals office nkt know that? They sure acted Ike they were there legally with warrant in hand. When conducting a sweep, they’re presumably given a list of those people in a specified geographical area who have a warrant for their arrest. Again, presumably they would be given said list of persons at the beginning of their shift so as to ensure mistakes aren’t made. That said, by my logic, the us marshals office KNEW that there was no warrant and decided to raid the house anyway. They refused to produce a warrant for our examination because the KNEW they didnt have one. I was not informed of my rights when put in cuffs either. The whole thing has been very traumatic to both my wife and myself. Now I’m not sure what to do about it. Should we sue? Let it go? From my perspective what the marshals did that morning was nothing short of a home invasion. Can they do this? Do I not have rights simply because I am on probation? Any legitimate advice would help. I haven’t lodged complaints or anything like that yet because I’m afraid of police retaliation via the probation dept.
Comments
>Should we sue?
No, there is no lawsuit here.
>Can they do this?
Execute legitimate arrest warrants that they believe are still active? Yes.
>Do I not have rights simply because I am on probation?
You still have rights, but you gave up certain rights in exchange for probation. But this is more of a warrant issue than a probation issue.
Not a Lawyer
Sorry if this is not allowed just giving my two cents.
Being on probation is hard. During my time as a Corrections Officer, I saw quite a few convicts choose to just finish their time instead of going on probation due to the variety of catch 22s that made life almost impossible.
I hate to say it bud but you almost certainly don’t have a leg to stand on with this. It should not have happened but when state talks to federal concerning things like warrants there is almost always a delay in updating status. These kinds of issues happen in a bureaucracy be it government or corporate.
My personal theory on how this happened is that the Marshals had been planning this series of raids for a while and had all the moving parts set up and ready to go before you got your warrant taken care of and then executed their raids without doing a final check on the valid warrants. As far as they were concerned every target on their list was valid. You got caught up in the system’s bullshit and I hate that it happened to you like that.
They will have paperwork showing that their actions were legally valid and that it was an honest mistake. If it makes any difference to you at all the Marshals are actually really good about policing themselves and someone will get reprimanded for the fuck up and some kind of change will go into their SOP. I doubt that gives you any peace on the situation but its more than I can say about a lot of organizations with confidence.
If you don’t have any property damage or injuries as a result of the raid then I would suggest you just log a complaint about it and move on with your life. That is shit advice I know but considering all the different ways this could have gone down you really ended up in the best possible outcome.