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Texas Woman, 97, Cuffed on Ticket Charge

Posted on: Wednesday, 28 April 2004, 06:00 CDT

HIGHLAND PARK, Texas - A 97-year-old woman was handcuffed and taken to jail in a squad car for failing to pay a traffic ticket, but her son is questioning police officers' treatment of the former teacher.

Harriette "Dolly" Kelton had an outstanding warrant for failing to pay a traffic ticket when Highland Park police stopped her last week for having an expired registration and inspection sticker.

Kelton, who has lived in the northern Dallas suburb for at least 60 years, is a former teacher at The Hockaday School. She was in police custody for about two hours before her attorney arrived and was released on her own recognizance.

"A warrant begins with the words 'you are hereby commanded to arrest,' " Detective Randy Millican, Highland Park's public information officer, told The Dallas Morning News in Wednesday's editions. "How do you decide who do you arrest and who you don't? How about at age 90 but not at 91 and up? How about between 17 and 20?"

Kelton's sons, a judge and a doctor, said she lives alone, cooks her own meals, goes out to lunch regularly and is involved in the community. She has good eyesight, they said.

"Our real beef with this is that no real judgment was displayed or actually carried out in this incident," said Dr. Phil Kelton Jr., a plastic reconstructive surgeon with Baylor University Medical Center.

"All of our enthusiasm should be tempered with judgment, and therein lies my problem with this and basically Mother's problem with it, too," he said.

State District Judge David Kelton said that it would be inappropriate for him to discuss the arrest.

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