2009-02-01 jailing
Background:
On January 2nd, 2009 Mike Barskey and friend Teri (Libertine) were driving home at about 10:00pm on Route 101 eastbound when a cop pulled them over for doing 71mph in a 55mph zone.
Cop Ian Day-Lewis pulled me over for speeding; when he approached my door I had the internal car light on and my hands at 10:00 and 2:00 on the wheel and my window rolled down about 2 inches; cop asked me to roll my window down, I said “it is down”, he asked a couple more times, I responded by saying that if he couldn’t hear me I would speak louder (he responded to everything I said, so he heard me); cop then told me to get out of the car; behind the car he asked me if I had any weapons on me and I told him no; he patted me down (very poorly, by the way – a *lot* could have escaped that pat-down!) and saw the empty conceal-carry holster in my pants; cop asked me if I had a gun in the car and I told him yes; cop asked why I didn’t tell him when he asked me if I had a weapon and I told him “because you asked if I had a weapon on me;” cop called for backup (officer Maloney and then sergeant Lance Hult) and then put me in handcuffs while telling me I was not being arrested; cops questioned Teri about having open-containers in the car; Teri and I both were polite and asked questions and didn’t cooperate entirely, but we both also (in my opinion) revealed way too much information and cooperated too much nonetheless.
As his personal site further describes he was given 2 citations and a summons. For speeding, allowing a passenger to have an open container and for not having the car registered. Teri received a summons for her open container.
The summons had court dates on them and when the date and time arrived Teri complied with the request and attended the arraignment. She entered a plea of “Not Guilty.” Mike did not attend resulting in a bench warrant being issued.
Arrest and Jailing:
At approximately 12:50am, on Sunday the 1st of February 2009, Mike was pulled over by an Amherst, New Hampshire police officer after apparently catching his eye when passing or being passed by another car. The officer followed Mike for a few minutes and ran his California plates finding that he had bench warrant for his arrest due to not showing up to a court hearing regarding a previous stop described above. The officer allowed Mike to drive his car to a nearby business parking lot so it wouldn’t have to be towed and then took Mike to the police station. After looking into the matter more the officers realized Mike had a cash bail of $2000 and that his registration was expired therefore tacking on another $40.
Mike refused to have his fingerprints taken and was told that that when he is brought to Valley Street jail in Manchester that they would “take them.” He mentions in his Porc411 messages that he planned to refuse to answer some or all of the questions they were asking of him and that he wasn’t planning on paying the cash bail resulting in him being held till arraignment.
The last message from Mike came in at 2:42am indicating his car was being towed to his home from the parking lot rather than being impounded. When the car was recovered the California license plates had been removed and the doors left unlocked.
The following day, Monday, February 2nd, 2009, Mike was brought to Milford District Court for an arraignment. He was given a court date of March 12th, 2009.
Since he was still unwilling to pay the $2040 bail and refused to complete 2 parts of the processing procedure he was expected to be kept in jail till the court date.
He had 6 charges against him: speeding, open container, having a concealed gun without a concealed carry license, not showing up for court, expired registration and not having a New Hampshire drivers license. Worse case for the concealed carry charge is 1 year in jail + fines. He pled not guilty on all six.
Bailout:
February 4th, 2009 Mike was bailed out. In a Porc411 made as he was being driven home he claimed that he was “not proud of it” and would provide more details later.
That night he called Free Talk Live and described his experience and the situation.
Trial:
On 03/12/2009 Mike was found guilty on all accounts but had all fines waived and was given a suspended sentence of 1 year.
Media:
- Articles
- Nashua Telegraph
- Video
- Audio
Sources:
