Word to the wise: In Baltimore City, driving to church may get you arrested.
At least that?s what two pastors of the Day Spring Worship Center in Pikesville discovered after being pulled over May 28 in the city on their way to church for not having a front license plate on their car.
The Rev. Charles Neal told The Examiner that he was arrested for driving with a suspended license, a charge that he said his MVA records proved to be wrong.
“I was humiliated,” Neal said. “My self-esteem is shot.”
The result for Neal was 17 hours in Central Booking over the Memorial Day weekend, an impounded car, and his wife, Dana, also a pastor, left standing on Franklin Street.
“They didn?t give me an opportunity to call my son and pick up my wife. They left her on the street in a dangerous neighborhood,” he said.
The couple were pulled over on the 2900 block of Franklin Street on their way to a church service for not having “a plate on the front” of their vehicle, the police report said. Rev. Neal told The Examiner he had left his driver?s license at home.
“We had two services that day; I just forgot,” he said.
But Neal said he had other identification in his car, including his employee ID card from Johns Hopkins, where he said he works as an accountant. “I offered the officer my birth certificate and Social Security card,” he said.
The next thing Neal knew, he was in the back of the patrol car trying to talk to his wife, who was standing on the street while their car was being impounded.
“I was in handcuffs, trying to talk to my wife through the rolled-up window and the officer shouted at me to stop talking to her,” he said.
The officer pulled up Neal?s MVA file on a screen in the patrol car, Neal said. From his rear seat, Neal said the screen showed that his license had been reinstated in May after it was suspended in April for a seat belt citation sent to the wrong address.
“How can you look at your computer and arrest me?” Neal asked the officer, whom Neal said did not answer.
Neal provided The Examiner with a copy of MVA records that back up his version of events.
Officer Nicole Monroe, a police spokeswoman, said the arrest could be the result of a technical glitch.
“Sometimes MVA is slow in updating their system. We have to follow procedure,” she said, adding that the lack of proper identification could have added to the problem.
Neal was charged with “driving without a license, failure to display a license on demand, and failure to attach vehicle registration plates at front and rear,” the charging documents show.
Member Kenneth Harris, angered by the couple?s story, has invited them to attend tonight?s CityCouncil meeting, where he plans to introduce a resolution calling for the council to investigate Police Department arrest policies. “This is just the tip of the iceberg of the complaints I?m getting,” Harris said.
