Friend Arrested for listing friend's car on craigslist

Hi Fellow FW'ers
My friend needs some help as he is in a situation.

Scenario:
My friend's friend who lived in Michigan left to INDIA for good and asked my friend to sell his car. Twist in the story is, he lost his title and requested from Michigan DMV and it was on its way to my friend's address in Texas. My friend got married in INDIA at the same time and since he did not have mail HOLD with his apartment complex, all the mails have been redirected back to the Sender

Last week he returned back from INDIA with his new wife. On wednesday when he was in the leasing office to renew his lease, the leasing officer asked him to wait for a few minutes and called the COPS. The cops came and arrested my friend and did not mention the reason.

When he asked the reason in the police station, it was for car theft ! Since he posted the ad on craigslist to sell the car, a lot of people came to test drive and someone from the list might have told the cops that this guy stole the car or something ...

My friend came out of JAIL with a $2000 bond and an agreement not to leave the state. He hired an lawyer who said he will charge $2500 for the entire process and also mentioned that even though its not his fault, this would stay on his history and will be notified to all immigration authorities ! Which is scary as he just started his GREEN card process. His court date is on 21st of this month and he is NERVOUS.

Please provide your valuable inputs that will surely help my friend !

FW - You guys ROCK !

I admire your use of caps, really livens up the story. INDIA HOLD COPS JAIL GREEN NERVOUS ROCK!

My only advice is to never but never talk to the COPS without your lawyer. Sounds like a big mix up that will work itself out. Except IDK about that "stay on his history" with immigration part. That would suck if your friend was just involved in a misunderstanding. Paging KK, paging doctor KK...was your wife involved with accidental felony theft charges by any chance?

The idiot tried to sell a car on craigslist without holding title?!?!?! What did he expect?

Assuming the story is true (I have my doubts),

1. Have him go to the DMV IN PERSON. Get the title.
2. Get the title changed from your friend's friend to your friend. This will likely involve a sale, with associated sales tax.
3. Why did he hire a $2500 lawyer? He should have lawyer shopped.
4. I doubt he will be able to get all this done by the 21st. Have him file for continuance to give him more time.

no money exchanged hands, and the auto wasn't actually sold w/o a title, right? - so why did he get arrested - what is he charged with??

Something doesn't add up, you dont' get arrested just because you don't have a title.

Mailed doesn't get return to sender either just because your mailbox is full.

I can't make sense of the story.

has to be more to the story we don't know.

if he's arrested for car theft, why can't they simply trace the last owner of the car and have him acknowledge there is no crime and drop the charge

There has to be a complaining victim for the cops to take a report never mind make an arrest. The victim would be the owner of the car or anyone that paid your "friend" for the car. There is more to this story... Did your friend's friend really own the car?

What is the charge? The cops would have issued a copy of the warrant and criminal complaint to the arrestee(your friend).

you sure it was INDIA and not NIGERIA?

itsmeprinceus said:   So here is the actual story. Some guy complained to the cops that he paid $2000 as a deposit to the car and my friend did not show up. Cops came to speak to him but unfortunately he was in INDIA getting married ...
Not sure what happened after that but the judge issued an arrest warrant... so as soon as he came to the lease office, they notified the cops and they came and took him..

SO basically he doesn't know who would have complained as only like 4-5 people test drove the car ..

So a person paid $2k to your friend and then he never came through with the goods... yup that's a crime. Your friend should have finished the transaction before leaving for INDIA or given the guy his money back. I am sure your friend still has the $2k... DId your friend maintain contact with the buyer while he was in INDIA? How long was he in INDIA?

On the plus side, he should have $2k to pay for a lawyer!

itsmeprinceus said:   Zuke76 said:   itsmeprinceus said:   So here is the actual story. Some guy complained to the cops that he paid $2000 as a deposit to the car and my friend did not show up. Cops came to speak to him but unfortunately he was in INDIA getting married ...
Not sure what happened after that but the judge issued an arrest warrant... so as soon as he came to the lease office, they notified the cops and they came and took him..

SO basically he doesn't know who would have complained as only like 4-5 people test drove the car ..

So a person paid $2k to your friend and then he never came through with the goods... yup that's a crime. Your friend should have finished the transaction before leaving for INDIA or given the guy his money back. I am sure your friend still has the $2k... DId your friend maintain contact with the buyer while he was in INDIA? How long was he in INDIA?

My friend never took the money and there was no contract... basically there were a few people who looked at the car but no one came back ...Then who took the money?

Zuke76 said:   Ok so what was he arrested for... the actual charge listed on the warrant.Me thinks that someone suspected that the car was stolen.. and so notified police. Cops were trying to find him but couldnt.. and so had some kind of warrant for his arrest by the time he came back to US. This begs two questions:
1) Who the hell has the $2k?
2) Wouldnt he be arrested on entry? AKA.. at the airport? I would assume that if cops were looking for him, Immigrations would know about it at the airport.

SigX said:   I know federal and state warrants go into the federal database, but not sure about anything else these days. In reality if he was arrested, the arresting agency can only hold him for so long, then they would have to ask the issuing agency to extradite him back to their jurisdiction, etc. Are they going to do all that for a $2K dispute?

EDIT: If he requires a visa to enter the US, he's probably in a more precarious situation with crimes that involve moral turpitude that immigration is aware.OP says that he was going to apply for his Greencard.. which means that he was here in US legally.. but not a permanent resident.. AKA he was on something like a H1 visa.
Poor wife.. Most likely she got married with him for a good future in the US.. and now there's a chance that he might not even get a greencard (and so no citizenship in future for him or his wife). A wife of a H1 visa holder cant even legally work in US.

forget prosecution, just send him back.

Guys here are the facts

1. The car was bought in Michigan and was brought to Texas , registered in Texas blah blah ....and title somehow was lost
2. The actual owner of the car left to India and left this car with his friend in Texas and asked him to sell it
3. The Frnd in Texas put it on Craig's list without the title to sell but he did his research on how to sell it without title i.e to have a bill of sale or some sort ( not sure of this bill of sale part is a fact )
4. The ad was put up 2011 July ....few ppl showed up and car never was sold.
5. The car currently is with the Frnd in Texas currently.
6. The case is some random guy claimed to have seen the ad on Craig's list came looking for a car , paid 2000$ as deposit to test drive a 1500$ worth car and filed a case that Texas Frnd just vanished after taking the money, which in fact never really happened . The money was never exchanged .
7. Once the case was filed the investigators came looking for Texas Frnd who at that time was in India. When investigators couldn't get hold him
They went back to the judge who then issued an arrest warrant and here how he got royally ------- up

Lawyer up and countersue

spidey4282 said:   Guys here are the facts

1. The car was bought in Michigan and was brought to Texas , registered in Texas blah blah ....and title somehow was lost
2. The actual owner of the car left to India and left this car with his friend in Texas and asked him to sell it
3. The Frnd in Texas put it on Craig's list without the title to sell but he did his research on how to sell it without title i.e to have a bill of sale or some sort ( not sure of this bill of sale part is a fact )
4. The ad was put up 2011 July ....few ppl showed up and car never was sold.
5. The car currently is with the Frnd in Texas currently.
6. The case is some random guy claimed to have seen the ad on Craig's list came looking for a car , paid 2000$ as deposit to test drive a 1500$ worth car and filed a case that Texas Frnd just vanished after taking the money, which in fact never really happened . The money was never exchanged .
7. Once the case was filed the investigators came looking for Texas Frnd who at that time was in India. When investigators couldn't get hold him
They went back to the judge who then issued an arrest warrant and here how he got royally ------- up#6 doesn't make any sense unless he has a receipt as proof that he paid $2k as deposit. if that's the case, your friend lied and there were some money exchanged hands.

FrugalFreak said:   do people in India have telephones? call friend and have him call police's office and state that it's not stolen.

Of course they have phones. Who do you think handles your CSR issues when you call to bitch at the cable company?

scrouds said:   shop around for lawyers. Pick a good one.

Most definetly! Very quickly.