Man says he was arrested in Gaston County over previously dismissed charge

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A man said a computer issue led to his wrongful arrest, forcing him to stay in the Gaston County jail for a full weekend.

Allen Sifford told Channel 9′s Ken Lemon the charge he was arrested over was dismissed months ago -- it was related to a since-resolved case from 2009. Sifford hired an attorney, went to court, and got the case dismissed. With that cleared, he was eligible for a new job.

He thought the matter was behind him until a couple of weeks ago. And after his experience, Sifford said he keeps his dismissal paperwork in every car he drives.

“Make me feel like I’m doing something wrong when I’m trying to do everything right,” he said.

Sifford was stopped for a traffic violation in Belmont on July 7. It was a Friday.

“They called three other officers over and said they had a warrant for my arrest,” he told Lemon.

He said he tried to explain that the charges had been dropped, but police didn’t believe him. Neither did the magistrate.

Because the charge was related to a domestic incident, Sifford had to stay in jail over the weekend, though he said the charge wasn’t for domestic violence.

“They dressed me out and stuck me in jail like everybody else and I don’t feel like I should have been there,” Sifford said.

Sifford’s attorney told Lemon the problem was in eWarrants, which is the new system that launched last year in all counties in North Carolina. He said some older cases didn’t get migrated into the system, so when Sifford was released from jail that following Monday, he got a stamped copy of the dismissal. It had been sitting in an office less than a thousand feet from where he sat in a jail.

His attorney had the old charge expunged, meaning it was completely removed from his record. Still, he worries about his daughter finding his mug shot.

“It’s demeaning to me because everything travels through the internet,” Sifford said.

He said he’ll never travel again without those court documents.

“If I don’t have this paperwork with me, they can try me again,” he said.

Other issues with getting online

Channel 9 learned that several issues have been caused when migrating information onto the eWarrants system in other counties, but the district attorney said this was the first case he’s heard about in Gaston County.

There are concerns we could see even more issues like this once North Carolina implements a new online court system. In February, eCourts was rolled out in four North Carolina counties: Wake, Lee, Johnston and Harrnett counties.

But Channel 9 has reported at least two people who are part of a class action lawsuit claim the system has led to violations of their constitutional rights, including wrongful arrests.

For now, the state has paused rolling out the system to more counties and there’s no timeline for when that could happen.

You can read more about the lawsuit and concerns by clicking here.

(RELATED: Lawsuit filed in NC saying online court system violated constitutional rights)

Lawsuit filed in NC saying online court system violated constitutional rights

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