COLONIE — It began as a minor dispute over a free pizza. But when the police got involved, a Colonie mother ended up in handcuffs and thrown in jail for three nights due to a "clerical error" on an arrest warrant that should have listed her ex-boyfriend.

"I just missed three days of my life, plus Easter with my children," Jessica L. Donovan said. "It was rough. ... I felt so degraded."

At the county jail, Donovan — who had never been arrested before — was booked, fingerprinted, photographed, given a prisoner jumpsuit and issued a test for tuberculosis. The 35-year-old didn't have her anti-depression medication and struggled to sleep. They placed her on "suicide watch" on a mental health tier where other female inmates screamed frequently as guards cursed throughout the night.

For three days, Donovan, who has two sons, ages 11 and 19, fell into despair and at times broke down sobbing. Some of the guards, she said, were sympathetic and suspected something was wrong with her arrest. They allowed her to call home a couple of times.

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It began around 6 p.m. on April 19 — Good Friday — when Donovan called the Central Avenue pizza shop around the corner from her residence to place an order. They owed her a free pizza, she said, but the men working there began berating and cursing at her, and then hung up as she tried to give them her information.

Infuriated, Donovan walked over to the pizza shop and landed herself in a heated argument with the men behind the counter. She said they were using vulgar language and saying horrible things to her. She tried to reason with them that she was a regular customer, but finally gave up. She threw a handful of cookies at them and knocked over a trash can as she walked out the door.

The pizza shop workers called police, and a pair of Colonie officers confronted Donovan a short time later at her residence. She told them she would never order anything from that store again.

The police weren't interested in making an arrest for the incident. But when they ran Donovan's name through a law enforcement database, it indicated she had a Family Court warrant for her arrest dating to November.

She told them it was a misunderstanding, and that she had documentation upstairs to prove that the warrant was for her ex-boyfriend, John Gannon Jr., for his alleged failure to pay child support for their two sons.

"I said I have custody of my kids," she said. "They told me the date of the warrant, and I said I was there that day when they signed the warrant (to arrest Gannon). I said 'I have proof' ... but they wouldn't take my proof."

Still, the Colonie officers, who suspected something was amiss, called the Albany County Sheriff's Department and asked them to send a full copy of the warrant to make sure there wasn't a mistake.

The warrant had been signed on Nov. 23 by Family Court Judge Richard Rivera. The caption listed Donovan as the "petitioner" and Gannon as the "respondent." But the third paragraph of the warrant, right above the judge's signature, erroneously stated: "You are therefore commanded to arrest Jessica L. Donovan, and bring said person before this court to be dealt with according to law."

Rivera, who could not be reached for comment, didn't notice the clerical error when he signed the warrant.

A spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration this week said Rivera was "mortified" that Donovan had been arrested and had spent three nights in the county jail. Rivera has been "counseled" by state Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Breslin, the district's administrative judge.

"We'll see if anything further comes of this," the spokesman said.

When the Colonie officers received a copy of the warrant from the sheriff's department, it included a physical description of Donovan along with her Social Security number, address and date of birth. Donovan said one of them "asked me where had I been for the last five months."

"I told him, 'I have been home taking care of my children — I have not been hiding,'" she said.

Colonie police Lt. Robert Winn said the officers had not been required to request a copy of the warrant, but did so out of caution.

"The guys had an inkling there might be something wrong with it, but at the end of the day we tried everything in our power to make sure we had the right person," Winn said.

The Colonie officers booked Donovan into the jail that night as a "pre-arraigned detainee." Winn said they believed that would assure Donovan had a right to be brought before a judge within 12 hours of her incarceration.

But when the officers went back to the jail on Saturday morning to retrieve Donovan and some other defendants, a debate ensued: Jail officials, citing the Family Court warrant, told the Colonie officers they had no authority to take Donovan.

Winn said the officers returned to the station and alerted their supervisors about what had happened. They began researching Family Court warrants and criminal procedure law and eventually — through a series of phone calls — convinced a jail supervisor to let them bring Donovan before a town justice that morning.

"They believed that her case should be heard by a judge," Winn said.

The Colonie officers brought Donovan to Colonie Town Court a short time later and town Justice Norman C. Massry set bail at $500. Donovan, hopeful that her nightmare was nearly over, was brought back to the jail and her mother raced over with the money to bail her out.

But jail supervisors refused to let her post bail. They insisted that the Family Court warrant — issued by a "Superior Court" — trumped the town justice's decision to set bail and allow her release. The jail officers said Donovan would not be released until appearing before a Family Court judge on Monday.

Jail officials instructed Donovan, who had no underwear, to remove her black-and-white checkered "pre-arraignment" jumpsuit, issued her a new yellow one and booked her into the jail as an inmate.

"I called my mom," Donovan recalled. "I said, 'I'm the jail's property now because they booked me in.'"

Later that day, a guard visited Donovan's cell and told her they had made arrangements for a "special visit": She was allowed to see her mom that Saturday evening. "I was really upset," Donovan said.

By Sunday morning, Donovan was reaching a breaking point. Jail officials had her talk to a mental health counselor.

"I broke down crying," she said. "I didn't sleep. I didn't eat a single thing. I didn't drink water. I think I had one serving of milk so that I didn't pass out."

Rensselaer County Family Court Judge Catherine Cholakis was covering for Albany County Family Court judges on Monday when Donovan was brought to the courthouse in downtown Albany.

"All she said was 'I'm very sorry this happened to you,'" Donovan said. "Somebody messed up. I honestly want somebody to pay for that. That was wrong. You just don't do that to people. They need an emergency judge for the weekend."

Law enforcement sources said judicial officials in Albany are researching what happened and trying to ascertain how the error occurred. They contend the jail officers had no authority to release Donovan when the town justice set bail.

"The sergeant actually would have made a mistake if he released her on the $500 bail," Sheriff Craig Apple said.

The sheriff said the incident underscores the need to amend New York's confusing and byzantine criminal justice laws.

The warrant for Donovan's arrest included excerpts at the bottom of the document gleaned from the Family Court Act, stating that if any adult "arrested under this act when the Family Court is not in session, he or she shall be taken to the most accessible magistrate and arraigned."

That section of the warrant also includes language about setting bail, but it's unclear whether only a judge with the Family Court that issued the warrant is authorized to set bail in those cases.

"You have got judges looking at this giving us mixed interpretations," Apple said. "This is why the whole criminal justice system, including Family Court, needs to be overhauled."

Apple said that in his law enforcement career spanning three decades, he has never seen a mistake like the one that led to Donovan's arrest.

"The wrong person was put in jail and she suffered through three days," Apple said. "And jail is not a pleasant place."