My brother Michael has been in Nevada for 5 months and 2 weeks ago went to get fingerprinted for a new job. He was ARRESTED and informed that a warrant had been out for him the end of 1999 for some heinous sexual accusations made against him when he lived in Oregon. On a child , no less. My brother has worked with children all his adult life. While in Oregon he worked in a juveinile detention facility and apparently this is where the accusations came from. He was TOTALLY unaware of this warrant. Knowing my brother as I do , these charges are ludicrous. My sister-in-law wasnt given any information about the charges and was told he would have to be extradited to Oregon within two weeks. On Christmas Day he was moved to Arizona and wasnt allowed to call anyone till two days later. Chrissy (sis in law) was told that they had two weeks to move him, but since he was moved to Arizona, the two week limit was reset, and he would probably be moved a few more times until he actually got to Oregon. He also cannot be assigned a public defender until he gets to Oregon, and the cheapest private lawyer we could find wants a $25,000 retainer.
This whole thing is insane. It is completely likely that he could be in jail for months before he gets to Oregon, where a judge could very well toss the whole thing out. He has no legal representation, no one will give Chrissy any information, and we are all freaking out. Here are some points to consider:
– The warrant was issued in Oregon the end of 1999. He moved back to Florida in December of 1998. The last five months he was in Oregon he was undergoing surgery and chemo for testicular cancer, which is the reason they came back home. They
lived in Oregon for about 15 months.
–After moving back to Florida in 1998, he went to work at the Daytona Beach Child Care Research Network, which requires fingerprinting and yearly screening thru child abuse databases.
– He bought a home, had a child, owned three vehicles , etc.
(My point being he was EASY TO FIND)
– He was told when he was arrested that they had a name and description – tattoos on back and both forearms. He has a tattoo on his back , but none on his arms.
HELP! What can we do? Is he going to just have to rot in jail until he gets to Oregon? Do we have any compensation after this is dropped for all the time he has spent in jail, his state -of-mind, losing his job, missing Christmas with his wife and two year old , etc? Why did it take so long to find him? Why won’t anyone give Chrissy any information? Why dont the dates match up? These are REALLY serious disgusting charges, and it seems the state of Oregon put no effort at all into finding him in the last three years.
Anyone have any advice?
Here are some Oregon Legal services links below, but in all honesty with the possible crap coming down the pike your brother needs a GOOD, EXPERIENCED (and successful) lawyer. I don’t know what legal services pricing is like in Oregon, but $ 25,000 as a retainer sounds pretty damned high, but maybe that’s the standard. Call the bar in the jusrisdiction where he is to be tried and shop around.
In real world terms, no matter which way you cut it your legal bills are likely to be at least 5 figures for a good lawyer so you’d better start thinking now of how you are going to scrape the money together. Resources are critical at this point.
The most important thing is to gather all the information you need before you commit to an attorney so you have a handle on the validity of the charges.
Well the only real help you’re going to get is by getting an attorney to represent him. If you can’t afford one then you’ll have to wait for a Public Defender.
The only thing about your story that stands out to me is a person’s right to a speedy trial. Shuffling him around seems to negate that to some extent so you might have something to gripe about there. Unfortunately, I do not know the specifics of how a ‘speedy trial’ are decided. Does it mean you have to be arraigned quickly, tried quickly, either/or? I have no idea myself.
As for compensation I think you can forget it. The State is doing its job and unless you can show that they had no cause for arresting your brother then you are SOL. You might have a civil suit you could bring against his accuser if that can be shown to have been nothing more than trouble making on the accuser’s part (i.e. the accusation was completely false and the accuser knew it). Given where the accusation came from it is unlikely the accuser has a lot to go after however.
Not at all…you can get a Public Defender for free. A paid attorney won’t keep you out of jail any longer. Maybe a paid attorney will have a better shot at getting your bail lowered but that’s about it…you still have to wait for your arraignment. after that a paid attorney will almost certainly do a better job for you than a Public Defender but that’s a different story.
Actually it was misleading using the term “juvenile detention facility”. It was a facility for teens , but the parents of these kids sent them there. In other words, rich kids, parents cant control them, send them somewhere else for other people to take care of. It was a pretty expensive place.
I may be naive, but who has $25,000? I sure dont, my parents SURE don’t. Even $2500 would be a stretch for my family. He cant even be bonded out till he gets to Oregon. I dont understand it at all- he signed extradition papers , he has to be arraigned in Oregon, so SEND HIM THERE ALREADY. What is the point in all this shuffling around? They can keep him in jail as long as they want without a lawyer, without giving any information, without being tried or convicited? Lovely. And to think that my brother is a tried and true republican who always had absolute faith in the judical system.
If your brother owns his own home and has several autos he should be able to get some kind of loan on the equity of the vehicles/home, no? That would at least get the ball rolling.
Sounds like he is getting shafted here.
Keep us posted on what happens.
Your brother will not have access till a court appointed attorney till he his charged with a crime. This will not happen till he returns to Oregon. He also is not eligible for bail till he is charged.
The delay is most likely the police in the jurisdiction that issued the warrant. They are deciding whether it is worth the cost to extradite him. An attorney in Oregon could expedite the process greatly. If they do press charges, Oregon has 30 days to pick him up. And yes, he will be held this whole time.
Has anyone in the family contacted the District Attorney’s office that is holding the warrant? Someone there may be able to shed some light on the situation. It is very possible the warrant is now stale (the victim is no longer cooperating, charges are unfounded, etc.) and the DA’s office can have is quashed. Someone needs to call Oregon ASAP.
And something to watch out for. If the warrant is quashed, the jurisdicitons that held him may come after him for the costs of the incarceration. This could turn into a bigger hassle than the original warrant. Good luck.
– The warrant was issued in Oregon the end of 1999. He moved back to Florida in December of 1998.
I take this to mean he wasn’t in Oregon when the warrant was issued. Was he in Oregon when the alleged crime occurred?
– He was told when he was arrested that they had a name and description – tattoos on back and both forearms. He has a tattoo on his back , but none on his arms.
Sounds like a classic case of law enforcement personnel ignoring exculpatory evidence. I don’t know what to do about it. Police and DA’s often seem to feel that they are incapable of making any sort of mistake, and innocent people suffer for their arrogance. Perhaps a newspaper would go after the story, or a law firm would take it as a pro bono case, in either case motivated by the blatant injustice of the situation.
We dont know WHEN the alleged crime occurred because no one will give us any information. A simple thing like a DATE could toss this whole thing out. I do know for a fact that I would never raise a child in Oregon–god forbid your child is actually molested and raped in that state. Doesnt seem like they try very hard to find the alleged criminal.
Many calls have been made to Oregon and no one will tell us ANYTHING. We have been told they may be buying time to see if the whole matter will be dropped.
Please tell me it is not actually possible he may have to pay for the time he is spending in jail? :eek: :eek: :eek: How in the name of American justice could he be held responsible for these costs??? The alleged victim may be an adult now-- seems to me the person who made these false accusations should have to pay. BUt then again , that seems logical and fair, and that is exactly the opposite of the entire situation. :mad:
It may even be that the accuser accused a totally different person and the facility screwed up and named your brother instead of the real guy. If this is true, he may well have a good law suit. What a nightmare. I am sorry your family.
I’d be interested to know how that works too. If true I am absolutely shocked by it. I mean c’mon…I get the pleasure of paying for my stay at Hotel Incaceration? What…the food and amenities are so good that they expect money back for it? If anyone should have to pay for this stuff it should be actual, convicted criminals. They are the ones who did something knowingly wrong and should help defray the costs of the State havung to house and feed them. Some poor soul who gets caught up in the system but is found ultimately to have done nothing wrong should have no responsibility of bearing the costs of their imprisonment.
My advice is that if you want a legal defender to stop all this nonsense then you have to go to Oregon, have the court appoint a public defender for your bother there, have the warrant quashed and have the other states release your bother on bail. If you want to fight extradition, then I dont see why he cant get a lawyer appointed to him in the state he’s in. Moving him around without due process is a violation of his rights. Have a judge stay the extradition until proper representation is obtained. Good luck.
Kristi, I am not a lawyer. So my advice to you is: get a lawyer. You can’t do anything really unless you have a lawyer. You keep asking us questions about whether they can do such and such a thing. We can’t answer that. Your attorney can answer it.
You said the cheapest private lawyer you could find demanded $25,000 in retainer. But I don’t think this is accurate. This sounds like the retainer to defend your brother. What you need to do is TALK to a lawyer. Even at $200 an hour, you could get some good advice for much less.
I also don’t understand the contention that he can’t get a public defender until he is in Oregon. If he is being held in Arizona, why can’t he get a public defender in Arizona? Even if he is never charged with anything in Arizona, at least he can get a few questions answered. Part of the problem is that you don’t even know what questions to ask. A lawyer, even a free public defender, will know what questions to ask.
My sis in law cannot get anyone to give her any answers, thus all these unanswered questions. We have been told that he will not be appointed a lawyer until he is arraigned in Oregon. The charges are from Oregon, and therefore thats where he has to be arraigned and till he is in Oregon he cannot be appointed a lawyer. We spoke to various lawyers in Nevada, and they all told us they could not represent him since he had to go to Oregon to be arraigned as that is where the charges stem from. Round and round in circles. My brother signed extradition papers willingly, he has no problem going to Oregon , as he is totally innocent, but of course its been three weeks and there is no telling when he will actually get there. The private lawyers in Oregon wont tell us anything besides how much money they want. I realize you guys can’t give me answers but I needed to vent my frustration and stress! If we could afford a private lawyer, he would have already had one, and this mess probably would have been sorted out.
$25,000 seems a fortune to me!!!
See if the county where the charges were filed has a public defender. Contact that office. They might answer your questions.
Private lawyers aren’t likely to give out free answers, and district attorney offices aren’t likely to provide many answers to the families of someone charged with a crime.
A lawyer in Arizona won’t be able to give you advice on a case from Oregon unless s/he’s licensed to practice there as well. I second the idea of calling the DA’s office and tyring to get some info from them. The arresting department shoud have a copy of the arrest warrant, which should have the alleged dates on it.
A warning about child molestation cases- in GA, they don't have to give an exact date. All they have to do is allege "between (xdate) and (ydate), the exact date being unkown to the grand jury". Don't know if Oregon is the same. Most of these offenses also have fairly long statutes of limitation, and depending on the state, they may not start running until the allegation is reported.
And don't sell the public defender's office short. Although they do tend to be overworked and underpaid, remember that they are very dedicated professionals who have a lot of experince trying cases. They also usually have the best relationships with the prosecutors, they know the judges, and they know who they can and can't trust on the local police force. Some PD's offices even have attorneys who specialize in sex crime allegations.
The fact that he waived extradition should speed things up. He should have been shown a copy of the warrant then.
The problem arose when you brother signed extradition papers. All he’s doing now is waiting to be processed which is in the Oregons courts convenience.
Consult (not hire) a lawyer in Oregon. Have him give you some options and a way to get answers. Go to the police where the charges originated, they may be able to give you a police report of the incident and answer some questions. talk to the court clerk in Oregon and have them process extradition quicker or find out whats holding him up.
AN UPDATE!!
So yesterday morning a guard walked into my brother’s cell, handed him a form that said he had to be in Oregon in front of a judge on 2-10, and told him he was free to go!! He has to go before a judge in Oregon so the charges can be formally dropped.
Thank goodness he happened to be in a jail which was 20 minutes from his best friend’s place in Arizona. Did I mention before that he had been wearing the same clothes for three weeks? They never issued him prison garb! :eek:
We have all been harassing the DA’s office in Oregon, and have been told that they can’t tell us anything, people are on vacation, blah blah blah. Seems to me someone came back to work, saw all the phone messages, checked it out, and said “Whoops!”. He already has an attorney who is getting him out of having to go to Oregon at all, and the civil suit is already a go!
Thanks for all you advice and concern!
