BENTON HARBOR (WKZO) -- The ACLU is going to petition the Berrien County Court for the immediate release of an Arizona woman caught in a bureaucratic nightmare, who has spent 9 days in the Berrien County Jail for cussing.

WOOD TV reports that Larue Ford moved back to the Midwest to be closer to her family and tried to get a job as a driver in Indiana but they kept denying her a Commercial License because of an unpaid traffic citation in Berrien County.

When she apparently muttered a vulgarity to herself after some frustration with the Court Clerk’s staff in Niles, because they missed a $50 reinstatement fee that caused the problem, Ford was pulled into court, cited for contempt and jailed.

Then the judge revoked her $5,000 bond because she had no permanent address in Indiana.

She spent Christmas in Jail, instead of with her family in Chicago.

The ACLU says because it happened in the Clerks office and not the court, she shouldn’t be held in contempt.

The Court isn’t commenting.