Fla. grandmother forgotten in jail for 15 days

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC

A Florida grandmother was arrested for driving on a suspended or revoked license and spent 15 days in jail — including Thanksgiving — before being released, the Miami Herald reported on Tuesday.

The 78-year-old woman, Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau, was initially pulled over in September for driving too slowly. She was then issued a ticket for driving on a suspended or revoked license. After failing to show up for a court appearance, a judge issued an arrest warrant for the criminal charge that carries a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Ten days after the ticket was issued, Shaink Trudeau received a letter from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, saying that her driving privileges were restored pending further review. While she believed her driving troubles were solved, the letter was actually in response to another incident.

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Public defenders failed to appear at her initial court appearance, and no assistant public defender met with Shaink Trudeau at the Broward County Jail, the newspaper reported. On the morning of her initial appearance, the pretrial services division found that Shaink Trudeau was eligible for pretrial release on her own recognizance, but failed to alert the judge of that, the newspaper reported.

Finally, at her arraignment on Dec. 2, 15 days after her arrest, prosecutors dropped the charges against her.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34823251/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[Buzz Clik]

1. "Dropped the charges"? Even if convicted and given full sentence, it would be less than 15 days.

Boobs.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Hope she knows a good lawyer.

[AnneD]

6. Bet she'll have her pick of lawyers now.....

You can't write stuff like this.

[Socal31]

3. I try to forget the ~ 15 days I spent in jail when I was younger.

Is that the same thing?

[AnneD]

9. I spent on day and for similar court screw up...

I was ticketed for a burned out tail light. The court date didn't totally show up on my carbon (I thought 1 instead of 11 month). When I missed the date in November, they issued a bench warrant. I had not received a notice by mail so I had NO IDEA that I was a wanted fugitive. Thank GOD my infant daughter was not with me ( I was single mom and she would have gone to CPS)and the officer let me park my car at my office parking space (I would have been towed). It took 8 hrs to so paperwork, but it was the most dehumanizing experience I ever had.

[Downwinder]

4. Elder abuse?

"She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal,'' the judge said at her final hearing on Dec. 2, according to the newspaper. "I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes.''

[zonkers]

5. What the fuck is wrong with our system? A 78 year old woman. This could have killed her.

And for what?

[Rapier09]

7. She was driving too slowly

That is why they suspended her license......

Did anyone here ever read Farenheit?

[Codeine]

12. She was pulled over for driving too slowly,

the license was already suspended and she was driving anyway, thus the arrest.

[sasquatch]

8. Florida

[wellst0nev0ter]

10. Flori-Duh (eom)

[timtom]

18. Oh, stuff it!

Gratuitous, unoriginal, unimaginative...

[MessiahRp]

11. This article is scatterbrained and doesn't really lay out all the situations clearly

Still I find it difficult to believe someone can be "forgotten" in jail when they have to come and feed you and check on you that often. Sounds more like something that was done on purpose.

Rp

[Downwinder]

13. I spent three days in jail for having MS.

I exhibited the symptoms of Public Intoxication though I had had nothing to drink, common with any neurological disorder. I was denied medication or a blood or breathalyser test. The County was getting paid by the State for incarcerations. When law enforcement becomes a profit center, it becomes corrupt.

[WriteDown]

14. Many here say you must rely on observations instead of breathylzers once drugs are made legal...

So you may have gotten a glimpse of the future.

[Downwinder]

16. Ask anyone with diabetes, the future is now. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

15. Hallandale Beach grandma sent to jail -- and forgotten

Posted on Tuesday, 01.12.10
Hallandale Beach grandma sent to jail -- and forgotten

A 78-year-old woman spent more than two weeks in jail, including Thanksgiving, because her case slipped through the courtroom cracks.

BY DAN CHRISTENSEN
BrowardBulldog.org

A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving with a suspended driver's license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn't suspended and an outraged judge set her free.

County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau's release in December at her arraignment.

``She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal,'' the judge said, according to a transcript. ``I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes.''

Safeguards built into Broward's judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case.

``We fell down and we fell down badly,'' said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein.

Two assistant public defenders who staff Broward's magistrate court neglected to represent Shaink Trudeau -- who is indigent -- during her initial appearance the morning after her Nov. 18 arrest, Finkelstein said. And contrary to office procedure, no assistant public defender went to meet with Shaink Trudeau at the Broward County Jail.

``It was almost like she was invisible. I deeply apologize to this woman,'' Finkelstein said.

Shaink Trudeau was having a bad 2009 even before a policeman pulled her over in the 1000 block of West Hallandale Beach Boulevard on Sept. 7 for driving her 1995 green Mercury sedan too slowly.

Neighbors at the Lone Pine Mobile Country Club West said the former waitress lost about $20,000 -- nearly all her money -- to a Jamaican land-sale scam and that the trailer park was taking steps to evict her because she could no longer pay the rent. Shaink Trudeau confirmed that account in an interview at the assisted living facility in Hollywood where she now resides.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/broward/story/1420180.html

[kayla9170]

17. This is shameful..Uncalled for....

I hope that if she has family left, they will work with her to sue Broward County, Florida. She drove (supposedly, then dropped) on a suspended license, not murdered someone. This is crazy, IMHO.