Warrant Catches Up With Woman

More than 20 years ago, Theresa Jones checked in with her probation office to find that her officer was gone and no one there could help her.

“I left it as, ‘You know where I am, you can find me if you need me,’ ” Jones, 65, said Friday.

On Monday, somebody finally did.

As Jones climbed into her 1977 Cadillac on her way to church, officers from a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation-Los Angeles Police Department task force arrested her on an almost 20-year-old bench warrant, apparently for violating the conditions of her probation on a manslaughter conviction.

Police said an automated computer check spit out Jones’ name and address last week, indicating there was a 1978 outstanding warrant against her.

They declined to specify what triggered the alarm or describe the monitoring system.

Jones said she doesn’t understand. It’s not as if she has been running from the law, she said.

She has lived in the same Inglewood apartment since 1988. Her voter’s registration card and driver’s license list the correct address. She receives federal disability aid checks at home.

“I said, ‘You could have written me and told me. I would’ve come in. I’m not hiding,’ ” Jones said.

That argument was apparently good enough for Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Judith Champagne, who Thursday ordered Jones released from jail on her own recognizance. A hearing is scheduled for next month.

The Los Angeles County Probation Department is still trying to sort out why it issued the warrant for Jones’ arrest so long ago.

“I can say 20 years ago we were mostly a paper-and-pencil operation,” said Craig Levy, spokesman for the department.

“Obviously, since then the system has undergone a significant change, particularly in the area of computerization. I can assure you we will look into the case to ensure it’s being handled appropriately.”

Alex Arrendondo, an officer with the task force, said the warrant is valid and it’s his job to find those who run from the law.

“The court is the only one that knows why that warrant is out,” Arrendondo said.

In 1973, Jones said she was a battered wife who one day shot her husband to death.

She was arrested, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 270 days in the County Jail and five years of probation, court records show.

“I reported every Saturday,” Jones said. “One Saturday the one I was reporting to wasn’t there and they didn’t know what to tell me to do.”

After she was released from jail Friday, she was ordered to report to the probation office. She said she waited for an hour but workers couldn’t find her file in the computer or anywhere else.

She was eager to go home and take her blood pressure medication, so she filled out a card with her address and telephone number and told them to call her.

“I’m too old for this,” she said.