OKLAHOMA CITY – Our In Your Corner team has new details involving a story that left us scratching our heads.
Earlier this year DeBorah Revels was in city court answering to a misdemeanor traffic ticket when a judge had her arrested for failing to pay a misdemeanor dog ticket from more than a decade ago!
It alleges Revels failed to confine her white Shih Tzu or terrier type dog, then refused to sign the citation.
“I don’t remember ever seeing it before, ever,” DeBorah said. “I can tell you this. I’ve never owned a white Shih Tzu.”
Revels claims the city got it wrong, then the judge took things too far.
“If the judge had said, ‘You know Miss Revels, I’m going to give you the opportunity to pay the ticket,’ and told me the amount of the ticket,” DeBorah said. “That was never said in the courtroom. Matter of fact, I was never even told I was being arrested for the ticket in the courtroom. So I was shocked when I went outside and ended up in handcuffs.”
Oklahoma City Deputy Municipal Counsel, Cindy Richard, tells the In Your Corner team the judge acted appropriately and DeBorah’s arrest wasn’t so much “about the underlying dog charge” as it was her failure to pay the ticket “or show up for court” way back in 2001.
Now there are new developments in the case.
Just last week Deborah and her attorney went to court to fight the ticket, but before she could address the court, the new judge handling the case threw out DeBorah’s ticket once and for all.
“After interrupting my life, putting me in handcuffs, I walk into a courtroom and the accuser or the prosecutor, whoever made the decision, just says ‘Oops, we’re not going to prosecute it’,” DeBorah said.
The city refunded DeBorah her bond money, but no apology.
Plus she’s still out some court costs and other fees.
“It’s not about the $53 Scott,” she said. “What it’s about is the injustice I was put under and it was unwarranted.”
While this grandmother never got to say her piece in court, she feels vindicated in the public eye.
“I’m more than appreciative to Channel 4 for what they’ve done,” she said. “Yes, I’ve been heard now, whereas I don’t think I would have been before.
