Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

It's impossible to check in with a probation officer while you're in surgery. Just bring appropriate documentation to court.

The judge will make the call on this. If he knew that he was going to have surgery before then he could have made arrangements and thus complied.

Probation is not a right or criminal statute. It is not like having to prove the elements of a crime. They can revoke it for failure to meet the conditions, end of story.

The judge may be understanding as well so this is really tough to say because probation is not a right and will be a call a judge will make.

If you want odds, go to Las Vegas. Any lawyer who quotes odds in a criminal case is pulling numbers from a place where the sun never shines.

The sooner he turns himself in, the better. Although the stuff he's done in the meantime is commendable, I would have advised him to handle this situation as soon as he got out of the hospital. As the answer above notes, being in surgery is a good excuse for failing to check in, but it sounds like months have passed.

There may be some good news; the law changed late last year, and a felony violation of petty theft with a prior, Penal Code �666, now requires THREE qualifying prior theft convictions (unless the defendant has a prior "strike," or is a registered sex offender; then it still takes just one prior conviction to make petty theft a felony).

I have convinced judges to reduce felony 666 convictions to misdemeanors, based on the change, for several clients who are on felony probation. He should definitely discuss this with his lawyer.

If he can't afford to hire his own attorney, the judge will appoint a lawyer from the public defender's office when he makes his first court appearance.