Lake County, Indiana police running a sting operation to capture auto theft suspects ran into trouble when the Lake County court’s computer system called CourtView showed warrants were issued in the case.

The Post-Tribune reports that suspects were alerted that warrants had been issued when they received letters from attorneys who had been alerted by CourtView to existence of a new criminal cases. It is a common practice for Lake County attorneys to send out letters to potential clients to advise of their services when a new case is filed in court.

Writes Chelsea Schneider Kirk in Procedural blunder may have hampered sting:

As the Lake County Sheriff’s Department lauded a nine-month auto theft sting leading to charges against at least 20 people, a Gary Police Department official close to the investigation said warrants left unsealed for the suspects created problems for officers.

“They were already getting letters from attorneys,” Gary Police Cpl. William Clouse said. “You know what, we’ve never had an issue like this where … the information was out.”

The upshot is that police arrested at least 20 suspects, according to news reports.

Technorati Tags: car theft, chop shop, courts, CourtView, crime, Gary Police, Lake County Sheriff, Sting, warrants

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