05/22/2024
The Winn Parish Journal article entitled Winnfield Police Cracks Down on Outstanding Bench Warrants noted that, “The Winnfield Police Department, in conjunction with the City Court Clerk, is starting a program to clear outstanding bench warrants from their files.” Unfortunately, that is not the case. Our office was not involved in the preparation of the list nor were we afforded an opportunity to review the list before publication. We learned about the list and its contents only after its publication.
We also note that the list is somewhat inaccurate. The article, as well as the original Facebook post from the Winnfield Police Department, incorrectly stated that the following individuals have active bench warrants when, in fact, they do not:
1. Jason Barton
2. Kole Clark
3. Hailey Dauzat
4. Lilian Davis
5. Tamara Dudley
The Winnfield Police Department, when informed of the errors by our office, stated in a subsequent Facebook post that the individuals named above were removed from the Police Department’s bench warrant list.
They also stated in that post, “These were recalled, but notice of recalls not received by this office.” That is also an unfortunate statement. It is routine policy that when the Court recalls a bench warrant, a notice is faxed to the Winnfield Police Department for their records. We have fax confirmations for each of the above named individuals showing that, not only was a Bench Warrant Recall faxed to the Police Department, it was received by them without error:
1. Jason Barton – Bench Warrant Recalls faxed and received by Police Department on November 29, 2023 and April 12, 2024.
2. Kole Clark – Bench Warrant Recall faxed and received by Police Department on September 15, 2021.
3. Hailey Dauzat - Bench Warrant Recall faxed and received by Police Department on December 28, 2023.
4. Lilian Davis - Bench Warrant Recall faxed and received by Police Department on April 25, 2023.
5. Tamara Dudley – Bench Warrant Recall faxed and received by Police Department on December 21, 2023.
