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.
Court records show the officer ticketed Shaink Trudeau not for driving too slowly, but for driving on a suspended or revoked driver's license -- a criminal charge that carries up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The ticket required her to appear at the South Satellite Courthouse on Oct. 8. When she did not show, a judge issued a bench warrant for her arrest and set a $2,000 bond.
Shaink Trudeau's license was revoked Aug. 27 by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for failing to respond to earlier correspondence regarding certain undisclosed medical issues, said Assistant State Attorney Hillary Gulden. The first letter was sent in March, a few weeks after Shaink Trudeau was convicted in Miami-Dade of improper backing following an accident there, Gulden said.
On Sept. 17, 10 days after her ticket in Hallandale Beach, the state received a response and restored Shaink Trudeau's driving privileges pending further review, Gulden said.
Shaink Trudeau told a reporter she understood the notice she received from the state to mean she no longer had to appear in court.
But she misunderstood. And six weeks after the warrant was issued, three brawny Broward Sheriff's deputies arrested Shaink Trudeau in her kitchen.
``They came on real strong, like I had killed somebody or something,'' she said.
Deputies took Shaink Trudeau to the Broward County Jail, where she was photographed, booked, fingerprinted and issued a standard khaki jumpsuit, jail records show.
The next morning, Nov. 19, Shaink Trudeau made her first appearance before Magistrate Judge John ``Jay'' Hurley. A video of the proceedings, in which the judge and inmates can see each other on TV monitors, shows Hurley telling Shaink Trudeau that her bond had been set at $2,000.
No court personnel called to the judge's attention the presence of an elderly wisp of a woman who needed special handling. Two experienced assistant public defenders were standing nearby, but said nothing, according to Finkelstein.
``They let a judge give this person the bum's rush,'' Finkelstein said.
Pretrial services division employees, who earlier that morning had found Shaink Trudeau eligible for pretrial release on her own recognizance, also shot up no flare to alert the judge.
Guards took Shaink Trudeau back to jail for the next two weeks, including Thanksgiving.
Shaink Trudeau says she wasn't mistreated, but was confused and wanted out.
Finally, at her arraignment on Dec. 2, prosecutor Gulden announced the state was dropping the charge because Shaink Trudeau's license was not suspended.
``On behalf of the system of so-called justice, I apologize,'' Judge Seidman said. ``I accept that,'' replied Shaink Trudeau.
Prosecutors now say they have established that Shaink Trudeau's license was in fact suspended on the day they dismissed the case. A further records check showed the state suspended it again on Nov. 26 -- while Shaink Trudeau was in jail -- for failing to obtain a medical reexamination.
Shaink Trudeau's license remains suspended today, and prosecutors have not decided whether to refile the charge, Gulden said.
Shaink Trudeau's odyssey through the belly of Broward's judicial system prompted soul-searching last week at the Public Defender's office. Finkelstein ordered retraining for several attorneys he declined to identify, but said there would be no discipline because there was no ill intent.
``She fell through the cracks,'' he said.
Judge Hurley, who said that from now on he will ask court personnel to identify special-circumstance cases that require his attention, added he wants to keep things in perspective:
``It's like when FedEx delivers a million packages a day and loses one or two. Do we really want to change the whole system because of it?''
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