Guilty until proven innocent

This is a true, but long story that happened to me recently. I will try to keep it as short as possible.

Several months ago I let my son borrow my car to go to work because his car was not working at the time. He worked at a rental car company at the airport. He called me at my office to tell me that there was some kind of skirmish with the police around where he parked my car. He went out to see what was going on, but the skirmish had just ended. The police asked him whose car this was, pointing to my car. He said it's his Dad's, and he was just borrowing it. The police told him that his Dad was in big trouble!!! My son asked why, and the police wouldn't tell him.

Back at his work area, a fellow employee said the police told him what the deal was with his Dad's car. He said there is a warrant out for his (my) arrest!!! I told my son, Josh, that this has to be some kind of mistake. I haven't done anything wrong, and I haven't been hiding from the law. He insisted that I call the police to see what the problem is. I ignored him for several hours until my wife called me. She heard from Josh what happened and urged me to contact the police as well. So, when I got home I decided to make the call.

I called the police station and asked if there was a way I could tell if there was a warrant out for my arrest. He said, "yes", and put me through to the warrants department. They asked me my name, and then said, "yes, there is a warrant out for your arrest". By this time, the color had drained from my face. What in the world is this all about, I asked. The guy from warrants said, "check deception". WHAT!!!??? I had never written a bad check in my life!!! I told him there must be some mistake and he said there was nothing he could do about it. My mind was racing about a hundred miles per hour, and found a clue in the process. I told the guy that back in 2000 I had some checks stolen and this must be what this is all about. He suggested I turn myself in!!! Turn myself in, I thought, wait wait wait a minute. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm not going to turn myself in for something I didn't do. I then ended the call.

My son called me back to have me look at www.indianasmostwanted.com. If you entered my name, I was in their database!!! There was no photo, because I had never been booked before, but it even had this generic message: "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND ANY OF THESE SUSPECTS AS THEY MAY BE ARMED AND DANGEROUS." Yikes!!! What the hell is this all about????? I am not a criminal!!!

Wow, what a situation. There is actually a warrant out for my arrest, my arrest, I kept repeating to myself. How can this happen to me??? When my checks where stolen in 2000, I immediately made a police report because some stores were contacting me for payment. The checking account had been closed for about a year and a half, and was in my name only with a previous address when they were written. Some of the checks I saw at the time were written to Wal-Mart, Clark gas station, Scott's and KFC. They were signed "Mrs. Stan Matuska" which was a dead give-away since the name on the checks were "Stan Matuska". There was no “Mrs.” pre-printed on the check. The ones I saw totaled over $1500! Back then, I was told by the police to go to my bank and sign my name several times as an affidavit to my signature. I was to make a copy of the bank form and the police report and send it to the merchants notifying them that they cannot contact me for payment, by law. I did this for every merchant that contacted me until they finally stopped calling and mailing me. I had copies of everything that I held onto for over 5 years until I moved in 2005. At that time, I thought there was not need to hold onto that bad memory any longer, and tossed everything away. I recently found out that was not a good idea.

Back to recently, I spent the next week contacting everyone I could think of who could help with this situation. All I needed was for someone to look at the warrant and compare it to the police report. Once they did that, they would see this is just a case of mistaken identity. If only it were so easy. I even had a co-worker who knows someone who works for a Judge, contact me to get this resolved. The Judge pulled up the complaint and told her assistant to tell me that the only thing I could do was to turn myself in.

I decided to contact an Attorney to resolve this matter. He tried to see the case file against me without me turning myself in, but the request was denied. The only way he could have access to my case file was for me to turn myself in. The Judge did say that I would be allowed to leave the jail on my OR (own recognizance, I later learned) until my court date. We were already downtown at the time my attorney told me that I should turn myself in in the early AM hours, so I won't have to spend a full night in jail. I asked if I could just do it now and get it over with. He said, yes, but was concerned that I wanted to do it right away. I wanted to get this over with, and I found out that the ONLY way to resolve this was to turn myself in!!! My attorney said I would only be booked for a few hours then released. He escorted me to the jail where I was booked. At the booking window, I explained what happened to me (not that it would help, but I felt like a criminal), and the officer said he had something similar happen to him! He said it had to do with a check at Meijer grocery store. He too had to go through the booking process, or at least he said he did.

So now, there I am. In jail. I had never seen the inside of a jail before. Looking back, it was almost like a bad dream. I was searched, photographed, fingerprinted, and stripped of anything of value, including my wedding ring, which had not been off my hand since the day I got arried. I was too scared to be sad, angered or even mad. They didn't tell you anything. I waited and waited, put in different holding cells with other "criminals", and fed some horrible food, which I refused to eat. It took some time to get an officers attention to ask if I could use the restroom. Eventually an office opened the cage and said, "Anybody else in here gotta take a piss?” At that point, I realized I wasn't at a Holiday Inn! They escorted us to a different cell with a restroom with little privacy! What was I thinking? I actually thought we would get to use a common area restroom down the hall!

Eventually, several of us were taken to a different holding room, but first, we were to grab a foam mattress before entering the room. Once inside, there were 4 metal beds, one sink and one toilet in plain view. The room was total concrete, with the exception of the jail door, and a tiny window. There was a camera in view, which was of some comfort. That's it. I put my mattress down on the lower bunk and waited, and waited, and waited. There was some talk, but mostly it was pretty quiet. After what seemed like forever, we were escorted out of the room, given our possessions, signed some release papers and ushered out a side door, where I was immediately accosted by one of the "inmates" who practically demanded some money. I don't remember how much I gave him because I was pretty bewildered at the time, but it was enough for us to part ways.

The rest of the story is very important, but it would drag out a long time. The short version is this: My attorney got my case file. It contained checks from Meijer!!! Apparently, back in 2000 when other businesses were finding my name and address in the phone book to contact me, Meijer simply turned me in to the police after their notice to me was returned to them because I had moved from the address on the bad check!!! They made no attempt beyond that to locate me like the other stores did! After several visits to see the Judge, mostly to ask for continuances, my attorney was able to get the case dropped. He is in the process of getting it expunged, but that hasn't happened yet. I am furious with Meijer, and my wife refuses to shop there any more. My attorney said Meijer was using the police to help their bottom line instead of hiring people to do the work! Meijer is probably doing the absolute minimum as required by the law to collect their debts so they can have the police hunt them down for payment!!! How convenient is that!!!??? I may still sue Meijer for their practices, or lack thereof; but if they are following the law to the letter, then I would be wasting my time and money.

I know several people who have had similar stories; and it makes me so mad, because there has to be a better way for innocent people to resolve these kinds of legal issues without the mandatory “turn yourself in” approach.