January 13, 2010
A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver's license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn't suspended and an outraged judge set her free.
County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau's release in December at her arraignment.
"She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal," said Seidman, according to a transcript. "I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes."
Safeguards built into Broward's judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case.
"We fell down and we fell down badly," said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, better known to South Florida television viewers as WSVN-Ch. 7's "Help me Howard."
Foul-ups and inaction are what kept the frail and passive senior behind bars for the first time in her life. Those missteps were largely, but not entirely, the result of Finkelstein's office -- the very office whose job it is to look out for indigents like Trudeau.
Two assistant public defenders who staff Broward's magistrate court neglected to represent Shaink Trudeau during her initial appearance in magistrate's court the morning after her Nov. 18 arrest, Finkelstein said. And contrary to office procedure, no public defender went to meet with Shaink Trudeau at the Broward County Jail.
Outraged judge frees grandma jailed for 15 days
A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver's license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn't suspe…
A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver's license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn't suspended and an outraged judge set her free.County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau's release in December at her arraignment.
"She's handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She's got chains around her waist, and she's got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal," said Seidman, according to a transcript. "I want her released. I think she's suffered enough at our system's mistakes."
Safeguards built into Broward's judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case.
"We fell down and we fell down badly," said Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein, better known to South Florida television viewers as WSVN-Ch. 7's "Help me Howard."
Foul-ups and inaction are what kept the frail and passive senior behind bars for the first time in her life. Those missteps were largely, but not entirely, the result of Finkelstein's office -- the very office whose job it is to look out for indigents like Trudeau.
Two assistant public defenders who staff Broward's magistrate court neglected to represent Shaink Trudeau during her initial appearance in magistrate's court the morning after her Nov. 18 arrest, Finkelstein said. And contrary to office procedure, no public defender went to meet with Shaink Trudeau at the Broward County Jail.
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