My cousin got picked up on a 17 year old bench warrant. He tells me he has never been arrested before. How the heck could he have a bench warrant?
It is quite odd that someone would get picked up on a bench warrant having never been arrested. In Philadelphia county when someone is arrested that are finger printed and given an ID number that is forever linked to that finger print. That ID number is referred to as a PP number. PP stands for Police Photo. Therefore, when a person gets arrested, there exists someone a PP number for the defendant that was arrest on the case and that PP number has finger print attached. If a person gets picked up for a bench warrant and wants to argue that it is impossible that it is his bench warrant because he has never been arrested, his lawyer can simply request that the finger prints be brought into court to disprove the identity.
The obvious next question is, how long does this take? That answer depends on the specific circumstance. At worst case scenario, I would hope never longer than three weeks. I think I could get this cleared up within three to four business days.
I am interested to hear Jay's thoughts on this one.Labels: bench warrant