Legal Question in Criminal Law in Maryland

My Son is on unsupervised probation for violating a restriction order, which is BS to begin with, but anyway his ex girlfriend is taking him to court again because he was in a parking lot when she walked out of a store and claimed that put him within 20 ft of her. So he went to court on March 30th and the

Judge set his trial date for May 1st. Today a sheriff shows up and arrest him for failure to appear in court which he said my son was suppose to be there this past Monday on April 10th. We showed him all the paperwork with the May 1st dates and told him we knew nothing about the court date on Monday. They took him in and put him in jail overnight saying he was mailed papers via regular mail and should have been there for violation of his probation. He has to go before the judge in the morning. My question is shouldn't papers this important have to be signed for? We never received these papers and when I told the officer we did not get them he said it would be up to the judge in the morning on whether or not he believes us to let my son out..when I asked why these papers did not require a signature he said it doesn't matter if my house was burned down as long as the paperwork matched the address of my residency he was in contempt of court..huh? So in other words if this so called summons was put in the wrong mailbox and we never received them to know he was supposed to be in court we are SOL?


Asked on 4/12/12, 8:30 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
William Welch William L. Welch, III Attorney

Not all summons must be signed for, because the law presumes that when something is mailed that it is received. The judge will consider the evidence on both sides of the failure to appear issue. If you son's explanation sounds reasonable, considering all of the evidence presented, then the judge might release him. The law does not require a signature in all cases, because some people avoid service.

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Answered on 4/13/12, 5:45 am


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