Criminal Defense: Arrested?
If you are arrested for a misdemeanor or felony, contact our offices immediately. We are here for you 24 hours a day and our cell phone is on our website for emergencies. Most importantly, if you are arrested, do not talk to any of the police officers. You have the right to remain silent. Any information that you give the officer, other than your identifying information, will be used against you in the prosecution of your case.
In some misdemeanor crimes, the police officer will issue you a Promise To Appear (PTA) which means you were arrested but the officer will not take you to jail. Instead you will be issued documenation and will at a later date receive a court date. In most misdemeanor cases and felony cases, you will be arrested on the spot and taken to jail.
As long as your arrest was not for a capital crime or a domestic violence case, you will be able to bond out of jail. Bond is where you place cash collateral with the court in order to assure you attendance at future court proceedings. Sometimes it is easier to contact a “bondsman” which is a company that will put up the money with the court for your bond with you paying the bondsman a premium.
It is vital that you retain an attorney immediately as your attorney will file a Notice of Appearance notifying the court and the prosecutor that you have an attorney as well as a Plea of Not Guilty. This court pleading will also include a Demand for Discovery which means that the prosecution will have to provide a list of all of the witnesses to the crime as well as all documentation dealing with the crime. A sample Notice of Appearance and Plea of Not Guilty is below.
We at Kreutzer Law Offices will immediately contact the State Attorneys Office and try to resolve your case as quickly as possible. Sometimes, we are able to resolve your case before the charges are actually filed with the court. If we are not able to resolve your case prior to the charges being filed, then we will begin the defense of your case by reviewing the discovery, taking depostions, filing motions and eventually having a jury trial, if we are unable to resolve your case while working through the above. A sample Motion to Suppress is below which is one of of the motions sometimes filed in a Driving Under the Influence Case (DUI).
