"Great Texas Warrant Round-up" - Pay those traffic fines!!!

[EB]

March 11, 2007, 12:25AM
Statewide effort to nab scofflaws draws to a close

By ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

A statewide municipal roundup ended at midnight Saturday, but drivers with outstanding tickets still shouldn't push their luck.

In Houston, and other Texas cities, police officers routinely run a computer check to see whether drivers they pull over for even minor traffic violations have a criminal record ? or unpaid parking or traffic tickets.

"If somebody still has a warrant, it is going to remain active," said Houston Police Department spokesman Gabe Ortiz. "So, if they get stopped, the police officer will run a check on that person. Any outstanding municipal warrants will still show up, and they will be arrested."

Houston was among 153 cities that participated in the so-called "Great Texas Warrant Round-up," which began March 3 and ended Saturday at midnight. The joint effort was aimed at clearing an estimated 1 million outstanding municipal warrants statewide.

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[EB]

March 4, 2007, 9:41AM
Pastor, gamer nabbed in Texas warrant sweephttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4600299.html
Local arrests part of statewide campaign against municipal scofflaws

By ANNE MARIE KILDAY

A preacher, a philosopher and a pragmatist got out of jail Saturday with clean driving records and different attitudes about the Great Texas Warrant Roundup.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of Texans were arrested statewide Saturday for outstanding municipal warrants in about 150 Texas cities. Houston police are participating in the roundup, which began at midnight Saturday and runs through next Saturday.

Thomas J. Perrino and his wife, Lamayi, embraced just outside the HPD's southeast jail, where they had spent Friday night and a good part of the day Saturday for not paying municipal traffic tickets.

"We're free," Lamayi Perrino said as she hugged her husband, who ? as pastor of the Good News Cathedral of Faith in northeast Houston ? is also her preacher.

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