Legal Question in Criminal Law in Iowa

I received a deferred judgement in pott county iowa 11/19/14 and was placed on informal probation which i failed to sign up for because it was not made clear to me what the requirements were but apparently the probation officer violated me and issued a warrant for my arrest on 4/2/15 but I received no notification and was unaware of any of this until I was pulled over 12/6/15 and hauled away to jail. 12/10/15 the judge appointed the public defender and continued my case to 1/6/16. I contacted the public defender's office and was told that I did not need to attend court on 1/6/16 and further information would be mailed to me. I received notice that I failed to appear to my probation violation hearing and that my probation revocation hearing was continued to 1/13/16. I tried numerous times to reach my public defender with no success, leaving several messages as well. I went to court on 1/13/16 and was informed that my probation was revoked and that I was to serve 7 days in jail and that I needed to report to the jail by 9pm 1/15/16. I did not report to jail because I don't even know what I did wrong?!?!? I was told if I didn't get into any trouble for a year then my record would be expunged, I haven't gotten so much as a parking ticket! I thought everything was fine, I don't understand why I should have to serve 7 days in jail? Please help


Asked on 1/19/16, 10:20 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Robert Luedeman solo practitioner

Get yourself a proper attorney to work this out. It all sounds terribly complicated.

In the first place you got one bite at the apple and failed to report to sign up-and they always tell you where and when. It's not up to the PO to try and find you to tell you what you already knew and you didn't make any effort to contact your PO.

So. They revoked your deferred judgment at the probation revocation hearing. What you did wrong was you violated your probation and it was revoked.

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Answered on 1/20/16, 7:45 pm


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