I need a better definition of “charged.” The dictionary says it’s being explicitly and formally accused of a crime. Does this supposedly happen upon arrest? Or is this done before a judge in a courtroom. Does it happen while you’re being “booked”? (And what is being booked?)
If the police round you up with a group of other people, toss you onto a bus, take you to jail, give you a uniform, but never once tell you specifically what you’re arrested for or question you, have you been charged?
And if the police are supposed to charge you during this time, but they don’t, does the court system take their word for it that they did?
At your arraignment you are formally presented with the charges and asked how you plea.
At the time of your arrest you are accused of a crime or offense.
Being ‘booked’ is when you are identified as being who you say you are, your fingerprints are taken (and sent to Washington and the capital of whatever state you’re in), and you are advised (further) of your legal rights.
If the police round you up, toss you on a bus, etc., as you say, I’d venture to guess you’re not in America.
The arraignment is the proceeding which tells you what you’re charged with. The charging document may be a prosecutor’s information or a grand jury indictment. The arrest is merely based on probable cause as it appears to the arrestign officer. The police have every right to add to, or reduce, the formal charges after you’re arrested. “Booking” is merely the identification procedure followed after arrest.
Jurisdictions vary. The following description applies to Virginia.
You must be afforded a arraignment hearing on the first court day after your arrest. At the arraignment, the court determines the status of the defendant’s right to representation by an attorney, calls the defendant by name, reads the charges, asks for the defendant’s plea, reviews the bail determination and sets the next court date. At this point, you are “charged.”
Preliminary hearings are held in all cases where the defendant is charged with a felony, unless the hearing is waived by the defendant. These hearings are conducted to determine if there is probable cause to believe that the defendant committed the felony charged . If so, the case is certified to the grand jury. If probable cause is not found, but probable cause is found to believe that a misdemeanor, rather than a felony, has been committed, then the felony charges may be reduced to a misdemeanor and, after arraignment on the misdemeanor, may be disposed of in district court. If no probable cause is found, the case is dismissed.
As I said above, you’re charged at the arraignment, which in Virginia must take place on the first court date following your arrest, if you’re in custody. Other states may vary, but all, I’m sure, mandate an arraignment-like proceeding, and a bail hearing, within seventy-two hours of arrest.
The police are under no obligation to talk to you, question you, or tell you why you’re there apart from the above.
Otto, if they did, it would have been after I left the practice of law.
In Virginia, the longest run would theoretically be an arrest on Friday night of a holiday weekend, and no magistrate on duty until Tuesday morning. This would be very unusual; most counties of any size had magistrates available for bail hearings over the weekend. We talked about that as a theoretical; never saw it happen in real life.
I’m told that now they permit bail hearings to be done by video tele-conference, reducing even further the chance that someone would stay locked up for long without one. Ah, technology.
