West County : OXNARD : 911 Caller Ends Up in Jail Because of Computer Error

Helene Golemon called for help. She twice dialed 911 around 2 a.m. and asked for a police officer to quiet some rowdy teen-agers drinking outside her Oxnard Shores home.

And when an officer showed up, about four hours later, Golemon thought it was better late than never.

That’s when she was arrested, put in the back of a patrol car and taken to the Oxnard Police Station.

There she was fingerprinted, photographed and locked up--all for a misdemeanor traffic ticket that she received in front of the Oxnard Police Department four years ago.

“It was awful,” said the 17-year Oxnard resident of her couple of hours behind bars. “I was in the slammer. Meanwhile, nothing happened to those kids and they were the ones drinking in front of my house.”

Golemon, 52, said she fought the ticket, lost and went to traffic school shortly after it was issued in 1988.

But a police computer mistakenly showed that she neglected to take care of the ticket, issued for an illegal left turn, and a warrant was issued for her arrest.

So when she called 911 on July 7 to complain about the party in front of her house, an Oxnard dispatcher ran a records check on her name and the arrest warrant appeared.

By 6 a.m., an officer was at her door.

“He said, ‘You’re under arrest, you have an outstanding warrant,’ ” Golemon recalled. “I said, ‘That’s impossible. You’ve got to be kidding.’ ”

Golemon posted her own bail. She wrote a $188 check and the police let her go.

Once she was free, she dug up records of her eight hours in traffic school and was able to clear her name.

But Golemon is outraged over her treatment and the way Oxnard police handled the matter.

“They used Gestapo tactics, and now they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong,” Golemon said. “I was mistakenly put in jail, and they don’t think they’ve done anything wrong.”

A police spokesman Saturday referred all calls on the matter to the police chief’s office.

Chief Harold Hurtt could not be reached for comment.

Golemon suspected the records check was done on her name because the 911 dispatcher became annoyed with her. Golemon said police have instructed Oxnard Shores residents to call whenever they have problems in the area.

“I just can’t stand injustices to anybody,” she said. “Now that it has happened to me, I’m really mad.”