N.D.Okla.: Failure to pay arrest warrant doesn’t violate 4A

A failure to pay arrest warrant issued on probable cause doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment because that’s only to start the process, not end it. Graff v. Aberdeen II, Inc., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46760 (N.D. Okla. Mar. 12, 2021):

A defendant’s arrest on an active bench warrant is not tantamount to incarceration of the indigent without a court finding that their failure to pay costs, fines, and fees was willful. To the contrary, it is nothing more than a means by which the court may compel recalcitrant offenders to appear and participate in the cost review process when they have voluntarily chosen not to do so. Once brought back before the court, the reason for a defendant’s failure to make a good faith effort to comply with an order of the court becomes relevant. It is here that it is the defendant’s burden to prove that good cause exists for non-compliance with a court order. Rule 8.4, Rules of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, Title 22, Ch. 18, Appx. (2018). This is true for claims of indigence as well. See Tilden, 306 P.3d at 556; McCaskey, 781 P.2d at 837; Patterson, 745 P.2d at 1199.