Black St. Louis woman facing six months in jail for 2017 traffic ticket she already paid

A St. Louis black woman is looking at six months in jail over a 2017 speeding ticket she already paid, reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

According to the report, Precious Jones, 34, was pulled over for speeding on Mother's Day 2017 as she rushed to her sister's house and cited for driving at a reported 120 miles per hour.

After missing her court date in August, Jones turned herself into the police, paid a bond on her arrest warrant, and set up a new court date. After taking driver education classes and doing community service, her attorney advised her to appear in court to pay a higher fine.

That is when things took a turn for the worse.

After Jones pleaded guilty to the Class B misdemeanor, Associate Circuit Court Judge Kelly Rose ordered her to serve a six-month jail sentence followed by two years probation, but offered to suspend the six months if Jones served 20 days “shock time” in the local jail on consecutive weekends.

With her drivers license suspended because of the conviction, Jones asked if she could serve the time at the St Louis jail near her home, but the judge refused her request.

For every Friday for 10 weeks Jones was dropped off by friends at the Lafayette County Jail to serve her time. However, car trouble prevented her from being on time one Friday night -- although she showed up the next day to serve out her two consecutive days.

Despite having paid her fine and having served all of her weekend time in jail, Jones was stunned to receive a notification in the mail saying that there was another warrant out for her arrest because prosecutor Kristen Hilbrenner was seeking to revoke her probation.

Adding to her woes is the fact that her attorney, James Worthington, withdrew from representing her, stating he wasn’t retained to work on a probation violation case.

The report states that Jones is now looking at the six months in jail along with needing to come up with money for a $2,500 bond to keep her from being immediately arrested on the most recent warrant.

According to Jones, she has appealed to the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union for help defending herself in court, saying, "I’m losing everything. They keep coming back for more. They’re trying to milk me for all I’ve got.”

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