Legal Question in Criminal Law in Indiana

my lawyer is an idiot-please help

can a judge accept a plea of guilt for a misdameanor posession charge, via phone, fax or us mail from my husband who is preasantly in a federal prison. judge was aware that he would be in federal prison when a trial date was set. prosecuting attorney contacted federal prison about transporting him for trial 1 day before trial date. my husband is in kentucky about 500 miles from winimac indiana. our lawyer is tring to find out what the judge should do! will not file motion for speedy trial. we have asked twice, 5 months ago and last month. shouldn't he have done this when my husband startd his federal time. no one seems to know if the indiana state time can run concurrant with the federal time. have spoke with the prosecuting atty myself since i can barely get our atty to call us back. he called me the day of trial wanting to know why my husband was not there! i don't know what to do now and cannot afford another atty. it is causing great stress upo my husband who is already had 7 heart attacks. i don;t whant this to kill him. he has less than a year left for his federal crime.


Asked on 3/20/05, 9:00 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Ralph Tambasco Tambasco & Associates,P.C. Attornenys at Law

Re: my lawyer is an idiot-please help

Generally the answer is that the defendant must be physically present before the court at which time the state court judge must advise him of his rights which he is waiving in accepting a plea of guilty. Having said this, technology is such that if teleconferencing were possible along with the defendant's attorney present, it may be possible to accomplish this task. However, having practiced in both state and federal courts, it has been my experience that the two sentences cannot run concurrently. That is at the same time. If the defendant is currently serving federal time, then the state will have to wait until he has completed that sentence before beginning the state's. There of course is the option of the state withholding prosecution and disposition until after the federal sentence is served or dismissing the action given the circumstances. Each case is different and this answer should not be presumed to be applicable in this instance as the specific facts of each case and their relationship to each other has not been analyzed.

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Answered on 3/20/05, 10:30 am


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