We got an unusual call Monday from the Buchanan County Circuit Clerk, Mary Beattie, asking that we remove a mug shot from the St Joe Post booking report.

Beattie called it a mistake.

“The case has been dimissed, and it’s no longer an open file,” Beattie said. “I’m not trying to pull any strings, but the lady called me and she was very upset. I told her the case had been dismissed and I would see what I could do.”

“There’s times when I have a very, very soft heart.”

As it turns out, the woman, Alexis Bremer, is a friend of mine. The warrant, on a charge of passing bad checks, dated back to 2008 and had been dismissed nearly five years ago.

“Apparently it was dismissed in November of 2008, because the check was paid off by my husband.”

But Ms Bremer says for some reason the warrant for her arrest remained active for five years, until last week, when she went to the courthouse on unrelated business with her mother.

“I was at the courthouse on the fourth floor with my mother, and apparently they typed in my social, and it came up saying I had an active warrant for my arrest,” Bremer said.

“Three sheriff’s deputies came around the corner and told me I had an active warrant for my arrest and handcuffed me.”

Bremer’s voice cracks as she continues the story. Clearly she has been doing a lot of crying. Bremer held back tears as she described the booking process.

“They made me take off my rings and my watch, and told me to pick up my matt and my blanket, and put me into a jail cell with somebody else that was detoxing for three and a half or four hours. And then they came and got me and booked me. And then I had to sit and wait for about another, it was about an hour, to allow me to be released and go and see my husband.”

“I didn’t know what to think. I kept thinking ‘what is everybody going to think?’ I just didn’t know what to think. I just wanted to curl up into a ball and not do anything. I just wanted to cry.”

So far, aside from Beattie, officials have not been very sympathetic. There was a warrant. It had been dismissed, but somehow remained on file on the computer system. Deputies have a duty to serve such warrants, and the jail has a duty to book suspects into jail.

So far, no one has apologized to Bremer.

“We are humans, we do make mistakes,” Beattie said in an interview. “This was a mistake that should have been caught, and it wasn’t. She is owed an apology, and yes I probably should call her and apologize that she was arrested.”

“Things do fall through the cracks, and when that happens we have a big mess to clean up,” Beattie said. “This was a pretty big mess that had to be cleaned up.”

Beattie says that when Bremer was arrested she posted bond. On Tuesday, that bond was mailed back to Bremer. In Beattie’s two terms as Circuit Clerk, she says this kind of error has not happened very much.

“I can’t put a number on it,” she said. “I could probably count on my fingers how many times. Maybe two or three times.”

For the record, we have removed the booking photograph from St Joseph Post, with our apologies.