Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Being in-custody got him a warrant

Hi. My fiance had a commitment to turn himself in April 2006 - in which he did comply and was sadly sentenced to prison time. Prior to his commitment date he and I picked up another case and his 1st scheduled hearing was April 2006 in which he was ABLE to appear. He was assigned a local public defender and given his 2nd court date, April 2006. During the 4-13 court hearing he had brought it to his attorneys attention that he had a commitment hearing out of town tha following day, 4-06 and that on 4-06 he'd already be in custody. Well, of course the attorney said he'd take care of it so my fiance left it at that. Ok, here April 21st comes and then goes, I appear for him to remind his attorney that he was in custody and he was not able to appear- well his attorney said that until he verified that was truthfully in custody he was gonna get a FTA- . gets you an automatic warrant out for your arrest. It's now 6-06 and he still has a warrant due to his attorney not obtaining his info. Not to mention brent is sitting in prison w/ a hold on him cuz of it. Is this right? What action can be taken? HELP


Asked on 6/02/06, 8:19 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
JOSEPH SHEMARIA LAW OFFICES OF JOSEPH SHEMARIA

Re: Being in-custody got him a warrant

I do not believe the court would have any alternative, whether it knew Brent was in custody or not, but to issue a bench warrant. Perhaps the best thing to do is get that lawyer (or another, if you don't trust him and can afford another private atty.) to resolve the new case so Brent gets the time to run concurrently and, more importantly perhaps, so the prison does not restrict his confinement further or deny him benefits he otherwise would receive but fot the outstanding warrant. (I am not a "prison" specialist).

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Answered on 6/04/06, 4:53 pm


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