Woman Says BMV Computer Problems Led To Son's Arrest

SWEETSER, Ind. -- A Grant County woman said the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles' computer problems caused police in Ohio to arrest her son on the false suspicion that he was driving with a suspended license.

Mary Hall said her college student son, Chris, recently was driving from Indiana to his summer job in Pennsylvania when police stopped him in Bucyrus, Ohio. Police checked his Indiana driver's license, and their computer system indicated it was suspended.

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Video: Woman Says BMV Computer Problems Led To Son's Arrest

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"Christopher called me at 4:30 in the morning, telling me that he was in the back of a police car, going to jail," Hall told 6News' Norman Cox on Thursday.

Chris Hall, as it turned out, was a victim of the BMV's July 5 computer upgrade. The BMV has had difficulty getting its new system to communicate accurately with police computers, causing police to mistakenly believe that some Indiana license holders have been driving illegally.

Chris Hall spent eight hours in jail and was taken to court in handcuffs and shackles, his mother said.

Mary Hall said she spent several hours on the phone, trying to reach the BMV to straighten her son's record. She said that when she did reach someone there, the person laughed and said, "I thought everybody knew about Indiana's problems."

The BMV sent a fax to Bucyrus police, saying Chris Hall's license was valid. But the college student wasn't released until after his court appearance.

Mary Hall said she drove to Ohio to see her son in court.

"He was in shackles and handcuffs and a belt restraint, which was very upsetting to me to see him like that because I knew that this was a mistake," she said.

Chris Hall, speaking to 6News by phone on Thursday, said his arrest was an embarrassing and humiliating experience.

"I had never been arrested before. Nothing like that has ever happened to me," he said. "When I went to the courthouse, I was in handcuffs and shackles. I felt like a hardened criminal, or like I had done something seriously wrong. I had to walk by my mother ... looking like that."

Two police associations said Thursday that communication between BMV and police computer systems was getting better, but problems remain, Cox reported.