Why couldn’t I just go pay a fine? It’s for a misdemeanor; it’s not like I killed anyone.
Uh, so what did you do? My friend’s ex was arrested (and did six months in the clink) for failure to pay child support. You don’t have to kill someone to get arrested. :rolleyes:
Was it sent via certified mail, return receipt requested?
If not, how can they prove you got it?
They sent a warrant in the mail?? Are you sure it wasn’t a summons?
Scarlett: Yes, I just REALLY need your disapproval at this moment. Thanks for your help and support. Maybe you could just stay out of this thread, perhaps? Wouldn’t want to crowd out the people with something useful to say.
Reeder: It says “Arrest Warrant” in big block letters.
Per Reeder I don’t think you received an arrest warrant.
What Is An Arrest Warrant?
It would be odd to request that you arrest yourself.
Does it tell you to appear at a local police station?
What’s the charge?
Talk to a lawyer.
Wish I could help more.
I suggest that for a good answer you should at least provide the jurisidiction and the charge. and, did you know about this charge before (ie, you were cited for something and didn’t follow through?)
IME, it’s unusual for a police person to serve in person an arrest warrent for a misdemeanor (felony, yep, that’s common).
I suspect that they’re ordering you to appear in front of a judge. They may still opt for a fine once you appear.
I once received a notice that a warrant for my arrest had been issued. I suppose the one who’d want the actual warrant itself would be the officer who would be coming to get me. But I suppose you might be sent a copy of the warrant as a method of notifying you that you’ve got some unfinished business.
Mine was from a podunk town on the Texas coast whose entire police force had congregated to issue me a 25 in a 20 zone ticket. I called their “city” hall (it was in a motel room) and gave the mayor the serial number of the money order that had been used to pay the fine; presumably records were updated and I’m in the clear in Seabrook, Texas.
I didn’t really address the OP. What you want to do is remedy your situation with the jurisdiction laying claim to your body. Find out what’s required to do that and do it. Personally, I’d spend $100 for a lawyer’s consultation if that’d save me a night or two in the slammer.
I also once received a notice that a warrant had been issued. I’m assuming that is what you got. Mine was for a ticket that I got for having a bottle of wine on a beach (Yet another reason I hated CA). I forgot about both the ticket and the warrant and two years later when bailing a friend out of jail, they ran a routine check on me and voila, I was the flavor of the day in the slammer while I explained what happened and after not too long, the O.C. Sheriffs let me go and told me to write a letter to ATTN: Presiding Judge, the court that assigned the warrant, and explain the situation and request options to take care of the matter. In my case, it was a simple matter of mailing them a check for $50 and all was fine.
My advice is to do the same if you cannot get to the courthouse in person. My guess is you’ll just be asked to send in the fine and it will be fine. This will save you trouble, stress and a meeting with Bubba the Love Sponge in county jail down the road. Trust me on this:)
For the record, I was rolling my eyes not at what you may or may not have done, but rather (1) the lack of information provided from which we are supposed to answer your question, and (2) the flippant-sounding remark “It’s not like I killed anyone.” There are a variety of offenses in this country between littering and homicide, and quite a few of them that are less serious than killing someone can indeed land you in jail.
I wasn’t necessarily expecting the completest legal advice. But I can’t do anything until tomorrow morning, so I sort of just wanted to get a ballpark notion of what’s going on. Also, I wanted to know why someone would be mailed an arrest warrant.
And, yes, I was vague, but I was kind of hoping that it was the kind of question that could be answered without an overabundance of personal info. God forbid something I type here could be used against me.
There’s a “Return to Sender” on the envelope, so they may think I ignored something when I really just didn’t get it in the mail. Looks like Duckster gets special bonus points for touching on that.
Scarlett: OK, I apologize. I had just spent a long phone conversation having the crap scared out of me by my dad (he has a flair for the bombastic), so I was prickly. When I said, “It’s not like I killed anyone,” I just meant that it was not such a serious offense that I should know better than to ask my question.
I can understand not wanting to air all of your info, but don’t you realize that giving us the jurisdiction involved makes a huge damn difference??? Or were you hoping that we assumed that it was from the location listed under your ‘member’ status (and of course, assume that we know which county in CA that would be, etc.)
you seem to be keeping a close eye here - why not give us at least that much, it may really, really, REALLY help getting you some kind of answer. (also if you can tell, is it a criminal matter or ordinance? for example - failure to pay parking tickets can some times in some jurisidictions get you arrested, however, it wouldn’t be reported as a criminal offense)
We’re cool. It’s redundant, but seconds on the suggestions to talk to a legal-type person where you are, if not a lawyer, then a court official. I’m afraid a message board won’t be of much help here.
“Huge damn difference”? I’ve really irritated you that much, huh?
Mountain View is in Santa Clara County.
Snooopy, write to the presiding judge of the courthouse that sent you the notice. You don’t have to know the name, just address it to the Presiding Judge. If it’s a misdemeanor like you say, don’t sweat it. You have a choice. If you don’t agree with the charge, you’ll have to go to court to fight it. If you do agree and just want to get it taken care of, write a letter and you’ll be given instructions on how to get it cleared. If you want to get it cleared as well as having it removed from your record, get a lawyer. Is the offense bad enough that you want to pay a couple hundred bucks to a lawyer to have it “disappear”? Only you can decide that.
A notice of a warrant issued for arrest is simply that. A notice that if you get stopped for anything, you’ll be taken into custody until things get figured out. Only you can weigh the options here. They already know where you live. If you write a letter, you won’t have a SWAT team blowing your door just because they got confirmation that you live there.
This is an easy one. Without additional information (e.g. the offense) I can only advise one course of action. First thing in the morning, call an attorney and have him or her look into it. DON’T trot down to the police station yourself to “straighten it out.” In fact, if it were me, I wouldn’t even drive until this had been sorted. These things usually come to light in routine traffic stops. You get pulled over because one of your license plate lights is out and the next thing you know, you’re handcuffed in the back of the squad car.
Maybe it’s no big deal and maybe it is. But if whatever it is has gone this far, a few hundred bucks to have an attorney straighten it out with the least amount of personal inconvenience for you is money very well spent.
A: Legal advice coming from anyone not an actual attourney is pretty much owrth about .01% of what you pay for it.
B: Most every state has pretty thourough a track record for disipline actions against attourneys who hand out legal advice for states which they are not registered to practice in.
C: Any lawyer worth having will not hand out free legal advice, not to mention you need a criminal attourney not just some board member who practicies IP or Tax law.
ABC: Free legal aid is avaialbe to you should you be unable to afford your own representation. This does nor mean you have to wait until the cuffs are on, contact Free Legal Aid for your city or province or municipality (where applicable).
A question: Did you do whatever it was you stand accused of doing? You seem quite defensive over something you refuse to even name which leads me to question how “minor” the issue at hand is.
When i was in college a girlfriend and i were necking in a city park at 11:15 one night… The park closed at eleven. a cruiser happened to be in the area, and instead of running i decided to cop to it, figuring i’d get off with a warning.
Nope. Cop wasn’t impressed that i feigned ignorance to the curfew, since my truck was parked RIGHT IN FROM OF THE CURFEW SIGN. so i got a 15 dollar park curfew violation ticket. which i promptly forgot all about.
Flash forward A YEAR, i get in a minor fender bender in a snow storm (got rear ended), and being that the accident was right in front of my house i went in and called the cops to clear the whole thing up. They come out. declare the accident a “no fault” becuase of the waether, let the girl who hit me go on her marry way… and turn to me and said
“you got any outstanding arrest warrants we oughtta know about?” YIKES
I had totally forgotten, but the city clearly hadn’t.
In front of my house we waited, me in cuffs, in the snow for a half hour, becuase the patrol car that stopped didn’t have a cage and couldn’t transport “prisoners”. When a cage car finally arrived, the senior parter decided i would be a good first frist for his rookie partner… so i’m in front of my house in the snow, on main street my head up against the trunk fo the car and the old cop is giving the chick who’s frisking me POINTERS… the height of degredation.
I had to spend the night in jail with all the drunks and bar fighters. It was not fun. at all. (nor was getting my nutsack frisked by a burly CO before lock-up).
Anyway. I made bail late that night and got out early in the morning, and at court date two months later and all the charges were dropped.
I don’t recomend it. be more proactive than i was.
CJ