OK my 'friend' has a problem. Said person had a run in with the police about a year ago. He decided to take the case to court using a PubDefndr. PD was a major arse, and so my friend basically said screw this & left the state. He's now 600 miles away & hasn't been contacted by the .50 down there. Well my friend can't find a decent job because of the warrant out on him. Just a misdemeanor. But this is complicating his life. He has enough to hire a private attorney but is not in the mood to go back. He has no ties to the state as far as I know. Advice???
If your friend ever want to lead a normal life he will have to face the music and go back to court to fix the problem...he just made it worse by fleeing and this type of thing doesn't just go away with time.
actually, there is a statute of limitations, depending on the crime and fleeing, but it's probably 10 to 25 years, and you can't go that long without a job (at least i can't.) he needs to go turn himself in and call his lawyer once he's been processed, or he'll be running for a *long* time. misdemeanor or not, it's time for him to man up and be responsible.
As the others have said it would be best for him to turn himself in. The longer he is "on-the-run" the more prison time he's gonna get. If his attorney is good enough he might be able to get a plea deal and only have your "friend" serve a few years. But, sadly, he's probably going to end up spending (due to running) 5 years minimum behind bars. :-( Peace
what exactly was the crime? if it was a DUI or something of that sort, even with running, it could be maybe 30 days in jail.
I don't think you and your friend are right about having to hire a private lawyer. Methinks its the law that they MUST provide you with a public defender ... its stated in the Miranda Rights. Why run away from a misdemeanor though? That doesn't seem to make much sense.
I don't think he wanted a public defender because he felt he was getting screwed over with the first one.
Auslander, Statute of limitations does not apply here. All Statutue of Limitations really means is they have to charge you within that time frame. If it meant you had to be convicted then many people would run away like this friend seems to have done. He just needs to contact the local judicial system and figure out the steps he needs to get it taken care of. Having something like that hanging over your head is not a good thing..
the point was that the "friend" couldn't be charged with running after a certain period of time, but only with what his original crime was. and, if he's managed to be a good boy in such a long period, perhaps he could get less punishment than he would have originally. but again, we really need to know what the crime was. we may not be lawyers, but there is a good bit of help we can probably offer.
Ah, I got ya. Sorry, I read that wrong. Makes sense now. I guess I spent to much time in the console forums... makes you loopy.
He should turn himself in. He will get some leniency if he does that, instead of getting stopped by the police (which will eventually happen, usually when u least expect it). For his original offense, if he was lookin at jail time, then I would highly recommend hiring a lawyer, if not, a PD should work for him. I just went to court yesterday, and had one of the best lawyers in town. I had 6 misdemeanor charges. concealed weapon, unregistered firearm, illegal transport of firearm, weed less than an oz, paraphanilia, and a vehicle registration violation. My lawyer charged me $1500, and after all those charges, I only had to plead to the concealed weapon charge. I got a $95 fine + court costs, and got $623 of my bond money back, plus I got my Glock back too. I had a clean record prior to this. Bottom line, GET A GOOD LAWYER.
I can feel sympathy for your friend, spending much time around a court house waiting for endless hearing on my divorce/child custody case. Some of the conversations between PD and the "Client" were nothing more than strong warning to take the deal before the prosecutor changed his/her mind, yet later the PD would be talking with the prosecutor saying how he hated these cases and just wanted them to get thru as fast as possible irregardless of the outcome for his client. The prosecutor just wanted to get the conviction so he'd be happy with any guilty plea entered. Judging from the conversations I heard, all the defendants were guilty, and wanted to avoid any/all jail time. The standard argument from the PD was that due to the overcrowding situation 30 days would turn out to be less than a week.
LAWLzz! 10-25 years for a 2nd degree misdemeanor? Me thinks you are smoking some hard ROCK there, buddy anyway, the system = joke. Child molesters & hardcore gang-bangers can get suspended sentences. Throw all the bums in jail so they can't steal food i say!!! HAH ~sarcasm~ Yup, exactly. Public defender wanted to plead it out. would NOT accept his request for a court trial. All he did was ask the judge for continuance after continuance. Hmmmm... well that's def true. The SOL (LOL that's the spelling ain't it?) applies to how long they can CHARGE you. Not how long they have to PROSECUTE, after being CHARGED. Charge was a 2nd misdemeanor, petit theft for stealing FOOD from a grocery store. Remember folks, it's food not whipped cream (for inhalant purposes) or cheese whiz (see: whippits).
i am one that ran from going to jail and left state i had a 2nd degree misdemeanor trafic driving on a revocked licence, and was going to get at least six months for this so i split state, and did not go back to that state for another ten years, and at that time that i went back for a visit the Statute of limitations had expired, and the time frame was 1978 when i left the state and thain came back in 1988, for a visit, went to see my grandpa before he died, so it all depends on how close you are to the state where you have left from, and the costs that the state wants to spend on bringing you back, to finnish the matter, this happend on the east coast and i went to the west coast, and while i was on the west coast i did get in trouble but i was never taken back to where i split from.
jeez what the hell? Doesn't anyone understand what the Statute of Limitations really is!? FL Law on SOL The solution to this problem? Don't use any c.cards or make other records that would show you were working/living outside the state. Also, returning to original state of offense & working for a day or two legally & keeping your paystub would show you were not "continuously absent from the state". Ummmm....i'm in touch with some people. The Man...will...not...get me easily. *middle finger at The Man*
then please, leave the country. if you can't respect the rules of the society in which you choose to live and prosper, then you need to leave it. *edit* and your sig is [bold]still[/bold] more than the rules allow.
i was just shareing what i had done and what has not happend to me, like i said i left the state because i did not want to go to jail for six months in 1978, in 1988, i got arested i a different state for possesion of drug parifnalia, got a suspened sen and three years probation, if there was a warent for my arest in the other state they would of found it, so i would say it was droped, also in all the time while i was gone have had good jobs credit cards bought a house. so like i said it all depends on how bad they want you and how far you are away from the place where you split from, also probation warents there is no statute of limitations. i seen on the news a while back, there was this guy who got arested on a probation warrent that was over fourty years old
