Widow, 80, spends night in jail

[KG]

I've never seen any place like that," says Elizabeth Milton, arrested on a 19-year-old bad check charge.
By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER, Times Staff Writer
Published June 25, 2004

TAMPA - Elizabeth E. Milton is an 80-year-old widow with a weak heart. She is a great-grandmother who weighs all of 105 pounds, has arthritis and carries 15 types of medication in her purse.

According to records, she has no criminal history in Florida. Her children say the closest she has ever gotten to criminal activity was when she worked in a gunpowder factory in Kentucky decades ago.

Her only addiction? Soap operas.

But Wednesday night Milton was arrested, put in the back of a sheriff's patrol car and carted off to the Orient Road Jail. Her crime, according to the deputy who pulled her car over for a random license tag search, was a bad check written almost 19 years ago for less than $150. >>>MORE

http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2004/06/25/Hillsborough/Widow__80__spends_nig.shtml

[JSJ]

1. has anyone else noticed...

...how emboldened and fascistic local cops have become under Bushhell and post 9-11?

[soup]

2. What the heck is a 'random license tag search'?

Is that when they pull in behind you in traffic and follow long enough to run the plate through the computer?

This poor woman was pulled over before the check was done? The only reason she was stopped was so her tag could be checked? This just doesn't sound right. Whatever happened to probable cause?

jeesh - Florida

[acmavm]

3. I guess Florida figures that they need to up the count on the felon list.

If they can't cook the numbers, they'll just cook the books another way.

What's the statute of limitations on this?

[RC]

4. Statute of limitations?

What ever it takes so they can do what they want. Florida is the R&D center for Bu$h's Amerika.

[soup]

6. Under $150.00 is a misdemeanor.

Statute of limitations to prosecute is 2 years on a misdemeanor (less than $150) check.
really long URL to the relevant page at State Attorney's Office

Not sure about the statute of limitations on a warrant. Would that ever go away without being taken care of? If there was a warrant, wouldn't that mean some form of legal process had already taken place? Wouldn't she have been made aware of that process at the time? At the very least a certified letter from the court? a letter from her bank? a court date? something????

-----

from the article:

State attorney's spokeswoman Pam Bondi said she can't imagine why the warrant was out there for so long.

"But I would assume the statute of limitations is long gone by now," Bondi said.

Milton hopes so.

If she ends up with a criminal record, the government could force her out of her apartment, where every surface is covered with pictures of her children, her 21 grandchildren and her 19 great-grandchildren.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Welcome to the Bushco facist state

Bush doesn't give a rap for this lady. She's poor, and poor people don't count, except as cannon fodder, as far as he's concerned.

When President Kerry takes office, I hope this lady sues the sh***t out of these bozos for false arrest, endangerment, etc. etc.