Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Re: facing felony drug possession charges

I am sorry to hear of the difficult time you are having. I agree with you that you would want to avoid the felony drug conviction and plea bargain to the misdemeanors. The willingness of the prosecutor to do so would depend on a lot of things the most significant being how strong is the current case against you and do you have any possible, believable defense to present at trial. There are other consideration though like your criminal history--not getting into trouble before would speak for going easy on you. Also, work and community references could be helpful to give the prosecutor a better picture of you in agreeing to reduce the charge.

It would be very unlikely to transfer jurisdiction (to King County). Both you and the prosecutor would have to agree and the judge would have to turn a blind eye to the jurisdiction issue. In my experience, most judges would be unwilling to do that however since the drug court judge is always the same judge it would be easy to find out in advance if that is something he would do.

I think you should encourage your attorney to pursue the diversion more agressively, however, absolutely do not try to communicate with the prosecutor directly. You might inadvertently weaken your case plus the prosecutor should refuse to have direct communication with you since you have an attorney.

I cannot tell you if the attorney is doing everything he can without seeing speaking with you and seeing your case in more detail. My consulting fee is $200. You should consider getting new counsel but only after a thorough communication regarding your case with your current P.D. There are also ways to get new P.D. on the case and avoid the expense of hiring your own attorney. I myself was a P.D for almost 10 years before deciding to represent clients directly.

Good luck whatever your decision.

At your service,