By his admittedly sketchy recollection, Dirk Richmond spent an unremarkable 18 hours of his life in Travis County. It was January, or possibly February, of 1987. Ronald Reagan was president; the Dow Jones had just inched above 2,500.
"Austin is like Paris!" declared a promotional video from a time when the city still needed promoting.
“It seemed like an OK place,” Richmond recalled. “But I’m an Aggie. So, you know.”
Richmond was driving from Arlington to Laredo to visit family. He arrived at an Austin Ramada Inn sometime in the evening — “it was dark” — rose early and resumed his trip the following morning. “I was just there to sleep and then get back on the road,” he recalled. Six months later, he left Texas altogether, relocating to Illinois.
Which is why Richmond was confused a few weeks ago when he received a pale blue card in the mail from the Travis County attorney’s office saying there was a warrant out for his arrest.
“I was going to throw it away,” Richmond, now a 56-year-old accountant, said. “I thought it was a scam. But I decided to call.”
It was no joke. But there is a punchline – read it at MyStatesman.com.
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