Charges dropped against Lynn woman arrested mistakenly

LYNN – Criminal charges filed Sunday against a Marblehead woman were dropped Wednesday after Lynn District Court officials admitted they filed an arrest warrant against her by mistake.Nancy Swiniuch, 47, of 156 Elm St. #4, Marblehead, was arrested about 11 a.m. Sunday after being pulled over at the corner of Spring and Pleasant streets in Marblehead. Police said they noticed she was driving an unregistered vehicle and that a default arrest warrant was recently issued against her for failing to pay court fines.Police charged her with a license plate violation, driving an unregistered vehicle and driving an uninsured vehicle – offenses that don’t usually land a person behind bars unless they’ve committed a more serious violation. However, because an arrest warrant had been issued, police had no choice but to haul Swiniuch to jail.It turns out the arrest warrant was issued due to a clerical error in the district court’s probation office.Court officials say Swiniuch had two previous court cases from 1999 and 2008. The 1999 case had been closed and the 2008 case was about to be closed upon Swiniuch’s payment of court costs.Officials confirm Swiniuch paid the fines when asked, but that an employee mistakenly noted the fines were for the 1999 case even though the money was paid in order to close the 2008 case.Because it appeared the fines on her 2008 case were not paid, an automatic default warrant was issued for her arrest.Court officials say mistaken arrest warrants are more common than people might think, but oftentimes the warrants are issued to people with multiple criminal cases who are less inconvenienced by them than the average individual.