Legal Question in Criminal Law in Indiana

Can a plea agreement be over-road

My son went to court for 4 charges: I - OWI, II - resisting by use of vehicle, III - Criminal recklessness, IV - resisting law enforement. The prosecuting attorney agreed with probation of 18 months, Plea agreement was signed by my son, his lawyer and procector. The judge looked at file and informed them that he seen another charge coming up, (totally different) so he was going to be generous and add another year. He gets a copy of the Court Docket. It says Count I, 1 yr, Count II 1-1/2 yrs to run concurrent. Reading on through it says ''State moves to dismiss Counts II & IV'' ''Motion granted'' This was signed by the judge and stamped rec'd by the court. When he got to jail he asked the officer about this and he told him he might want to get a hold of his lawyer. We know his lawyer in this county will just say it is a typeo and ignore it. Was Count II dismissed and only 1 yr correct? If so what can he do? Can a judge look ahead at another charge that he hasn't even entered any plea on?


Asked on 12/07/01, 5:05 pm

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

Re: Can a plea agreement be over-road

The court cannot be a party to any plea agreement, that is take part in fashioning it. However, if the court feels that the agreement is unfair, does not comply with the law or is inappropriate,the court may reject it in the interests of justice.

If so, the parties would have to go back to the drawing board. If this could not be done then it would mean the defendant would have to go to trial or plead guilty as charge with open sentencing. Yet, the judge would be restricted within the directive of the statute regarding sentencing of the particular offense.

The information provided seems to indicate that the sentence was only on counts 1 & 2 with the others dimissed. That as they run together, i.e. concurrent, means that in reality it is 18 months. Whether this is suspended or not, I don't know and you have not said what the order states specifically about the length of probation.

If the plea agreement does not exclude modification, this may be an option of reducing the length of probation. Generally, this means approacing modification after 6 months into it.

Read more
Answered on 12/08/01, 11:33 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Criminal Law questions and answers in Indiana