Legal Question in Constitutional Law in North Carolina
How can someone or company charge a former employ with embezelment with no proof and then that employ get arrested for it and get a 20,000 dollar bond. Before it even goes to court? That dosen't make sense to me. What happened with innocent until proven guilty?
1 Answer from Attorneys
All the Company needs to do is get a law enforcement officer to believe that the person is guilty, then put forward enough evidence for there to be Probable Cause. Unfortunately this is a very low standard in embezzlement cases since most of the evidence is the employer's suspicion rather than fact.
However $20,000.00 is a very high bond for a case in which there is no risk of physical harm. There is the presumption of innocence, and there is even a presumption of pretrial release under North Carolina General Statute: NCGS 15A‑534 "Procedure for determining conditions of pretrial release"
Subsection (b) reads: "The judicial official in granting pretrial release must impose condition [release with different restrictions] in subsection (a) above unless he determines that such release will not reasonably assure the appearance of the defendant as required; will pose a danger of injury to any person; or is likely to result in destruction of evidence, subornation of perjury, or intimidation of potential witnesses."
So there is a presumption that the person should be released pending trial unless specific conditions call for a secured bond. You need to contact an experienced Trial Attorney in the county here the person is charged and discuss a Bond Reduction Hearing.