I have spent between 6-10 days in jail for failing to appear for traffic court in Kansas. I am from California, and currently live in Fresno, but from July of 2009 through March of 2012 minus the year 2010 where I took a government funded 1 year expedition to Iraq. I had never been ticketed for speeding, or anything regarding my driving before, and in California, they have real crime to deal with, so they just send the balance of your ticket to collections. It was July of 2011, and i was in the Army Warrior Leader course. A two week long school that you are required to go to in order to be promoted to Sergeant. I was married at the time, and she was a tad bit unstable. For her sake she will remain anonymous. I was home studying for the next days block of instruction, when we began to argue about something arbitrary. This was common for us, and extremely childish. I said something that she didn’t like, more than likely about divorce, and she flew off the handle,and physically attacked me. She jumped on me while I was siting on the couch, and began to choke me with her hands around my neck to a point where I started to lose consciousness, In order to hopefully mitigate the circumstance I attempted to make my way outside, even though she was clinging to me, striking me, and at 1 point she cut me with her keys. I still have the scar on my left arm. When I got outside she continued to attack me. Luckily for me I lived in a neighborhood that was populated by military families. She began choking me again, and I actually lost consciousness in the street. I came to with her attempting to drag my body out of the road, at around the same time, a neighbor who happened to be in the military came outside, and told her to knock it off, he had seen everything, and was prepared to call the cops. She went back our place, and I went into his house, he gave me a cigarette, and a place to chill. It wasn’t shortly after, that my clothes came flying out the door of the duplex, She smashed my brand new acoustic guitar and, My ukelele was in the same condition I discovered later, When I went into my closet everything was covered in hair gel, laundry detergent, and a number of other colored liquids including my Class A dress uniform. I originally wanted to keep the cops out of it, but I took my friends advice, and called the police on her. They showed up and took pictures, asked question’s eventually made an arrest. A no contact order was placed on us by a judge, and she moved in with her friends for a few weeks… To make a long story short, A few days later that no contact order was broken, a 911 call was made to the police that was accidental, and immediately hung up. Let me tell you that is not the way to handle a 911 call. If you do by mistake call 911, stay on the line, and make confirmation that everything is ok. Hanging up will only make them dispatch a nearby unit… and that is exactly what happened. When they knocked on my door I was scared I could potentially go to jail for having her in the house with me, so I told them everything was fine, I pocket dialed from my bed, and it had to have been a misunderstanding. They were cool, and asked for my ID. This is where everything goes south. I retrieved my ID, (even thought I had not been accused of a crime.) and presented it to them with all of the pride in the world. Here stands Brian Sumner. US Army Combat Medic, and Iraq war veteran there is no way I am going to jail… Well I couldn’t have been more wrong, turned out I had a warrant for my arrest due to failing to appear for traffic court for one of the many speeding tickets I racked up, and never payed in Kansas. I spent Friday night through sunday afternoon in Geary County detention facility. My unit was pissed, and I didn’t get to have a much needed weekend full of partying, and carrying on with my buddies. The moral of this article is when confronted by police, DO NOT provide identification unless they have reasonable suspicion or probable cause. Remember these 2 question’s, and ask them until you have an answer that you are satisfied with. “Am I Being Detained?” or “Am I Free to Go” say it again just to make sure it sticks. Police will let you know if you are being detained, but they won’t tell you if you aren’t. That is why it is important to be up to date on your most basic of rights, and understand that the Police do not have any authority to just stop and question you, or stop and frisk you. If you are not being accused of a crime, and trust me they will let you know, DO NOT answer question’s, provide ID, or say anything other than those two questions, and you can avoid spending your time in a cage while hoping the system catches and corrects the error.
