Legal Question in Criminal Law in California
restraining order violations
My current boy friend was arrested for violating a restraining order in 2005. he served time in GA. He was recently arrested for the same charge in CA. He never violated the restraining order in CA. How can he do jail time for something he already did time for.
3 Answers from Attorneys
Re: restraining order violations
Did he violate the restraining order a second time? If so, he was subject to arrest in California or any other state. That the order was issued in Georgia that does not mean that only Georgia can arrest him for violating it. People are routinely arrested in one state for offenses they committed in another; it is then up to the second state to decide whether to extradite the arrestee.
Re: restraining order violations
He can't be prosecuted twice for the same act. If you are describing this accurately, someone has made a mistake. A lawyer should be able to straighten this out pretty promptly. Someone needs to get a copy of the court docket from GA including 1) the complaint (which will list the charges and the dates of the violations); and the disposition (plea, sentence). This will prove it is the same incident and will force a dismissal. Sounds like an outstanding warrant was never cleared when he got prosecuted and convicted.
Re: restraining order violations
There are a couple of possibilities. First, your boyfriend may have violated the restraining order more than one time and the second arrest is as a result of a separate violation of the same restraining order. However, if your boyfriend did not violate the restraining order again and the arrest stems from the same incident that he was arrested for in GA, than it is possible the warrant for his arrest was never recalled or pulled after his arrest. If this is the situation an attorney should be able to get the information you need to clear up the matter reasonable quickly. I suggest you contact an attorney in your area and have them look into it. If you can not afford an attorney tell your boyfriend to explain the situation to the public defender and they should be able to clear it up. Good luck