jdconfused
New Member
About two months ago I was arrested for illegeal gambling and theft by deception. Now at present I'm being Federally Indicted. For charges at present I assume are the same. The raffle tickets that were being sold and the t-shirts that my associates and I wore had the name of the orginization printed clearly on both. Customers were notified that the grand prize would be donated to the Red Cross to benefit Katrina vicitms. We never presented ourseleves to be working for the Red Cross yet we were told that that was exactly what we were trying to do. Every person who purchased a ticket was told that we were from our organization trying to donated the would be grand prize to the Red Cross. The only thing that had Red Cross on it were our buckets and even those had our organization and 'Red Cross working towards a new begining' printed on the front. We were informed thatit was illegal to sell raffles under state law but when I reviewed it myself it said that you had to have filed a 501c which the organization did file. We tried to have it faxed over to the police department at the time of our arrest but were told that it wasn't needed when I later found out that it would have made a difference. The local news was called in and we were called scammers the day after our arrest. The news stated through info given buy the police that it was a ring(like a drug ring) and that we were going from state to state scamming others,we were from out of state but decided to come to that state to buy property and start a youth program, drugs are a problem in that city which we told the police and they themselves know that. The news also stated that we used several alias which was not true at the time of my arrest they did a check by running my date of birth and name and found nothing then they did it several more times misspelling my name at a certain point and came up with lists of arrests including trafficing and conspirarcy . When shcocked because I had never been arrested before in all my 22yrs I asked what the charges were and how to get them cleared off my record, I was told rather rudely that I commited the crime and I knew what they were. Then upon looking at the "rap sheet" the officer then saw that the female in question with the various alias was born in 1958 I was born in 1983 and the sheet contained parts of my name never at the same time and wasn't even spelled correctly. My face was in the news and I was conndemed before a court appearence. Even though I had no aresst record I could not be released on my on recognance. My phone calls were recorded and cut off abrutly and i couldn't get to talk to a bondsman until my 4th day in jail, I had made the call request on the first day and was told that someone would get me to make that call. It didn't happen until that 4th day after much pleading and nagging the previous three days. A medical condition that I had was never treated I couldn't even recieve pain medication(advil etc.). When released they tried to have my family member pay an extra thousand dollars above the original bond . When said family member was going to threaten to call the NAACP the person backed down. I was realeased without my family member having to show a stich of identification except a cashiers check. My question is can I sue the paper and police for defamation and incorrect facts? Also is there a chance that I will go to jail for selling $80 worth(that was all we sold ) of raffle tickets? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Yes I 'm seeing about getting an attorney. Oh and are all federal cases trials with juries or are some without?I think I'm the victim of something but I'm not sure. I this what all happens in the judical system?
Thank You for you help
Thank You for you help
