The First Thing That’s Important When You Come To Talk To An Attorney About Your Case, Is To Let Us Know If You Were Arrested Or Not Arrested.
Video Transcribed: My name is Ryan Cannonie. I’m a Tahlequah criminal defense attorney for the Wirth Law Office in Tahlequah. And today I want to talk to you a little bit about Oklahoma criminal cases and just kind of break it down. I’m going to do a little section of videos going through each step of the criminal process, so that you’re more familiar with it.
It’s kind of surprising sometimes, I have people come in and they’ve never had any interaction with law enforcement or the court system. And all of a sudden, they’re thrown into the middle of it and it’s confusing and scary, and that’s why you need an attorney to kind of help you navigate those waters.
So the first thing that’s important when you come to talk to an attorney, come to talk to us about your case, is to let us know if you were arrested or not arrested. So in the criminal system, if you are accused of a crime and law enforcement, if it’s a misdemeanor and they see it committed in their presence, or there’s a couple of exceptions to that; domestic violence being one, they don’t have to see it in their presence, just see injuries from it, and it has to be within so many hours. If that’s the situation, then you might be arrested right there.
If it’s a felony that you’re going to be charged with, and law enforcement believe they have what you call probable cause, that is just a fancy way of saying they think you did it, then they can arrest you for a felony, even if they don’t see it happen in front of them, or if they don’t walk up into it.
So that kind of gives you a split where law enforcement can arrest you for those misdemeanors or felonies, or they can do a police report, send it to the district attorney’s office, and then ask for a warrant to be signed by the judge for your arrest.
Now, why is this important to you? Why does it matter if you’re arrested now or later? Well, if you’re arrested immediately, you are not going to be re-arrested when they file charges against you; if they file, but more than likely, there’ll be some charges out of it, so that’s something to consider.
If you’re arrested immediately, you’re going to have to come up with bond or you’re going to sit in jail. If you’re arrested immediately, you’re going to go to jail, unless COVID kind of threw a little wrench in that system that the state has, because they were letting people out to try to keep people out of the jail.
But now I think they’re keeping people in. So it’s going to give you a little bit of a quicker court date. You’re going to probably need an attorney a little faster than you would if you were not in jail or if you bond.
So on the flip side of that, if you are not arrested, if law enforcement come out, they may ask to question you. Remember, at that point, you have a right to remain silent. You have a right to talk to an attorney. Come talk to attorneys before you start talking. That’s some of your rights you have. That’s a choice you have to make.
But once they do an investigation, they’ll send it up to the DA’s office. Don’t just hope it goes away. Come talk to an attorney, because you won’t receive notice. They’re not going to send you something in the mail.
They’re not going to call you or text you and say, “Hey, by the way, you have a warrant for your arrest out.” What’s going to happen is, you’re going to be on your way to work. You’re going to get pulled over for running a stop sign or having a tail light out. They’re going to run your information, see you have a warrant, tow your car, put you in jail at that time.
And then if you’re very unlucky, we have some holidays coming up, or if you go in on a weekend, you may not see a judge. Sometimes they come in on Sundays, but potentially you may not see a judge all weekend to get out. Certain offenses, they won’t give you a bond on the weekend, they make you wait all weekend. If it’s a holiday, Labor Day, for instance, if you go in on a Friday on Labor Day, it may be Tuesday before you’re able to get in front of court and get a bond.
So if you think there’s an investigation going on, or if you know that they’re talking and investigating something that they think you did, or they’re accusing you of doing, come talk to an attorney.
One thing an attorney can do is that they’re not going to get the warrant completely … Get rid of it in most cases; sometimes, but most cases, not. What they can do is go up and say, “Hey look, my name’s Ryan Cannonie. I represent John Q. Public on this. And if you guys do a warrant, let me know and we’ll walk him through.”
Now, a walk through means a warrant is issued, but a lot of times they’ll hold off on issuing it. So you’re not pulled over and go to jail right away. You and your attorney go up to the courthouse and they file the warrant then, you’re arraigned on everything. You might have to go out to the jail and be fingerprinted, but it’s a better system.
If they won’t agree to that, sometimes in more serious charges, serious crimes, they won’t agree to that. Even then, it’s still good to talk to an attorney because they can give you advice on what to be expecting, what to do. One thing that a lot of people do, is go talk to a bonds person so they can have everything ready. So if they do serve the warrant and make you go to jail, then you’re going out there, walking in, fingerprint, bondsman is right there with you to bond you right back out.
So that’s kind of how criminal cases start. There’s like I said, one of two ways, most of the time. That is either you’re going to be rested on the offense, or they’re going to request a warrant. And by they, I mean, law enforcement. So it’s imperative that you get someone who knows the process, knows the system, to be able to help you.
Because the last thing you want is to be, like I said, driving to work, driving to Wal-mart, just going somewhere with your family, and they notice, they pull you over, or even if they don’t pull you over, you don’t have to commit any offense to be arrested on a warrant. You could just be walking down the street and officer sees you and realizes you have a warrant. And next thing you know, you’re in cuffs going to jail for a three day weekend.
So if you find yourself in a situation where you’ve either been arrested and you need legal advice, or, you know there’s an investigation going on and you are concerned about a warrant being issued for you or charges being filed, come down and talk to us. We can help. We can talk to you about the process, go over all your options, possibly help you maybe avoid that night in jail. So give us a call. We can help.
