Thanks for the input.
Perhaps I have given the impression that this is a giant, serious concern. It is not. He got a DUI a while back. He went to court. It was pushed to another date several times. Unless he lied to me, he went to court each time.
I don’t remind him about court. I do not even know the court dates. To my knowledge he has never missed a court date, because he usually comes home and will snarl a bit to me that they have pushed it back again and he hast to go back.
Where we live, it can be 10 days to two weeks after a arrest, before you go before a judge. I made my original post just trying to see if there’s any way to just double check whether he was in court in December or not, before he had to spend the time waiting to see the judge.I know that I would personally hate to sit in jail for 10 days to two weeks on an error that caused an arrest. Not saying there was an error, but maybe the possibility.
I am not able at this point to even have the choice of bailing him out. He cannot get bail. No bond is allowed because it was a failure to appear charge. I totally get that. If someone fails to appear in court, it seems a bit ridiculous to give them a bond to appear at another time in court, when bail is all about guaranteeing his appearance. And, of course, the police don’t deal with anything but the charges / arrest.
I am almost certain that once personal effects are placed in the safe, the one arrested cannot get to them. Since I posted my original post, it has been explained to me that I could suggest to my son that he sign over his personal belongings to me, and then I could get a hold of the wallet and check the paperwork. I have not spoken to him since yesterday, so I haven’t been able to make that suggestion to him.
He was just arrested Wednesday evening, so when I spoke with him yesterday several times, he was still being processed and had not even been placed in the jail.
I have been told since his arrest, that he will probably not have to wait the 10 days to two weeks to see a judge. That the process here is that he would have a video chat with a "magistrate" who would ask him his intentions when he goes before the judge. Will he have a lawyer? Will he need a public defender? Will he plead guilty? That type of thing. (That doesn’t really make logical sense to me, since I would assume you would want to wait until you had representation before you determined whether or not you were going to plead guilty. But maybe that’s just my ignorance of the process.). I’m hoping that my son could present the situation to the magistrate at that time. It may or may not make any difference.
Bigger, I certainly don’t think you are uncaring. However, I do sometimes hesitate to mention my children’s disabilities on this site, because I believe the response is to assume that I am making excuses for my children. Their whole lives I have worked hard to encourage them to make the most of their lives. To be accountable. That their difficulties are invisible and the world mostly doesn’t care if you have legitimate issues. The world will expect them to be responsible, accountable, etc., and they should be. At the same time, I have interceded when I felt it was he right thing to do. Such as with IEPs at school. The only reason I mentioned his disability was that a fast paced courtroom can be a challenge to follow, and I wondered if he just misunderstood something, or failed to sign something, which might result in him not being counted present.
Anyway, his charges are small and will not result in a great deal of jail time, and so I will not be hiring a lawyer for him. The only reason I was considering speaking to a lawyer was in hopes that SOMEONE could advise me about something I could do to double check his attendance record for December. In all the calls I have made, there was no one who would help me with the process. The best info I got was from my sons friend who was with him at the time of his arrest, and had some experience of his own.
For those of us not in the legal field, it would truly be nice to have an individual who is an information specialist of some kind. That way, you could talk to them and ask questions like this. Whereas now, if you ask a question, you’re just told to get a lawyer. My whole thing was that I just basically wanted to know if there was any way to double check about his court appearance.
Much ado about nothing, I guess.