Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Re: Traveling to States but need to clear up possession charge

I am assuming that since you�ve indicated your legal issue relates to Washington law, the state where your wife was cited for possession of marijuana was Washington State. Since she never appeared on this charge, there is, in all likelihood, a pending bench warrant for her arrest.

Arrest warrants typically do not �die on the vine� so to speak. They remain active for many years. When bench warrants expire, they usually get renewed. Warrants are stored on the National Crime Information Computer (NCIC) System and accessible to virtually thousands of policing agencies at a touch of a button. So if there is a warrant, when your wife attempts to enter the United States through customs and immigration, the computers the border agents use in these post 9-11 days will tell them that she has the warrant.

Under this scenario, your wife would be taken into custody on the spot and then transferred to the county where the charge is pending. If she�s had this warrant for a long time, it�s also likely that she won�t be able to get a personal recognizance release, and unless she can post bail, she would have to remain in jail until the case is over. If they don�t arrest her on the charge, the border agents could also possibly detain her for Federal deportation proceedings, which could take weeks or months to occur. If deported, she would be barred from ever re-entering the US. Either way, going to jail is a strong possibility.

My advice is that well before you depart on your trip to Las Vegas, you have your wife contact a criminal defense lawyer in the jurisdiction where this incident occurred and see if they can verify whether there is in fact a warrant out for your wife. Most criminal defense attorneys have ways to check on these sorts of things without tipping off the authorities. If there is a warrant, then ask about the local process for quashing the warrant and follow through with that process.

Presently, possession of less than 40 grams of marijuana in Washington State is a simple misdemeanor punishable by up to 90-days jail and a $1,000.00 fine. But be aware that it carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 1-day in jail along with a fine of $475.00, provided that she has no prior convictions.

Bottom line is, not to make a pun, I recommend that she not �gamble� on whether she can successfully go to Las Vegas without first looking into the situation.