By Colin Killian, Public Communications Director
In this week's episode of "What's Up, College Station?" Marketing Coordinator Grace Hallowell and Municipal Court Judge Ed Spillane discuss the spring warrant amnesty (Feb. 10-28) and roundup.
If you have an outstanding warrant, you can avoid paying a $50 per case warrant fee if you pay the fine in full. If you don't, you may be arrested during the roundup (March 1-9).
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If you have a suggestion for a future topic or interview, email me at ckillian@cstx.gov.
TRANSCRIPT
Grace Hallowell:
What's up, College Station? I'm Grace Hallowell, and today I'm joined by Municipal Court Judge Edward Spillane. We are here to talk about the warrant amnesty and roundup, and it's hard to believe it's time again.
Judge Spillane:
Sure. We do it twice a year and probably our busiest time is this year, starting Monday, February 10th, and for three weeks. So the end of February, if you have a warrant or you think you might have a warrant, if you come to our court and take care of that, we'll waive the warrant fee. But most importantly, you won't get arrested. That's the biggest thing.
And so we do it during those three weeks just to encourage people to come in. A lot of people don't think with a traffic ticket that it's a criminal case, but if you put it in your glove compartment and ignore it, that becomes a warrant for your arrest. And so we do this with your help to get people to come to court.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. And you guys are there to help people take care of their cases and get everything set right?
Judge Spillane:
Yeah. Our hard-working clerks do... We call people on their cell. We do everything to avoid the warrant stage, but if you get arrested, then your booking photo is online in Brazos County and it's not pleasant.
So this is one way we try to get people to come into court and we'll waive your warrant fee. You come in and you won't get arrested at court. We'll take care of you. Also, sometimes people aren't sure if they have a warrant. We have a list on our website, but you also can just call and ask or ask which court your case is and we'll be more than happy to help you.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. You guys are very helpful because this process, if you're unfamiliar with it, can be very confusing.
Judge Spillane:
True.
Grace Hallowell:
So you guys are there to help. And the roundup period follows the amnesty period.
Judge Spillane:
That's right. The week before Spring break is a way to think about it, but March 1st to 10th, chances are if you have a warning and you didn't come in, then you could be arrested during the warrant roundup because officers will look for those warrants and during that period we will arrest people who have warrants for Class C misdemeanors. Also, the JP courts cooperate with us too during this time. So we try to have it a cooperative enterprise during the month of March and February with all the other courts.
Grace Hallowell:
And if somebody has a warrant here but they are not in town for whatever reason, are they able to take care of their case and pay over the phone or online?
Judge Spillane:
Absolutely. You could call, yes, you can pay online or you can call and with your credit card, pay it. We'll take you out of warrant and we'll waive your warrant fee if you take care of it. So no matter... Even if you're out of state or some... It really is important to take care of that.
We do a program with you and for many years about teaching people how to clear their record eventually. And a lot of college students especially, but others are interested in that. So we do everything we can to make sure that municipal court... I know people aren't happy to go there, but it's a short and as pleasant experience in terms of getting things done and not following you later.
Grace Hallowell:
Yes. That the not following you later is very important because... especially if it's something small like a traffic ticket and you forget about it, you don't want that on your record following you everywhere.
Judge Spillane:
No, there are so many data companies that follow people and do backgrounds and other things. So any case that you have, even if it's a fine only case, you want to take care of it because it's a criminal case.
Grace Hallowell:
Right. So where can people find out more information if they want to look and see if they have a warrant or how to pay?
Judge Spillane:
You can go to our cstx.gov/court and look that up. Or you can call us at (979)-764-3683 and our clerks will help you. If you don't know what court, we can direct you to the right court. So call or look on our website.
Grace Hallowell:
Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
About the Blogger
Colin Killian has been with the City of College Station since 2010 after serving 23 years as the associate media relations director for the Texas A&M Athletics Department. He has also worked as a reporter and editor for the Corpus Christi Caller-Times and Lewisville News. A native of Hobbs, N.M., Killian graduated from Texas Tech with a bachelor’s degree in journalism/political science.
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