What can we do if my daughter is not given a fair pre trial? 44 Answers as of March 05, 2012

Sorry, to hear the details of your daughters case. You really can't do much if the lawyer does not present the evidence. You might want to call a few lawyers to see what the actual cost would be to defend her.

Her attorney needs to set a motion to reconsider her conditions of release. It sounds like the facts never got to the judge and therefore were never argued.

You may want to request that your appointed attorney file a Motion. The Court cannot accept the second reason as a valid one for failing the bond condition. However, now that there have been a few days in jail, the Court may change its mind. Future missed tests will not be tolerated, and there will not be a third chance I hope that this was helpful.

If you can't come up with money to hire a lawyer, you don't have any other alternatives but to rely on whatever you can get the public defender to do.

If your daughter does not have money for a private attorney, she will have to make due with the court appointed public defender. Your daughter can request a substitution for her present attorney but more likely than not she will be appointed another public defender. Public defender's tend to be attorney's with large case loads making it difficult to meet or communicate with them. Your daughter must continue trying to commmunicate with her attorney unless she asks for a substitution and is granted one.

I would contact her lawyer and inform them of her inability to attend the drug test.

Conditions of bond are just that, conditions that must be met in order to stay out on bond. While your daughter had arguable reasons why she was unable to comply with the conditions, the fact remains that she didn't comply and the judge exercised his discretion by revoking her bond. If the judge's decision would have been different if the hospital followed through with their communication, you arguably have a valid complaint against the hospital. You mentioned that you were never provided a fair pre-trial, but I am confused as to what pre-trial you did or didn't have for your upcoming trial.

If you don't have any money for privately retained counsel, I do not feel there is much that you can do.

Sorry but she is just gonna have to wait till the next court date, not much else you can do, the judge took the bond.

There is not much you can do. The choices are either to hire a private lawyer or be appointed a public defender. If you can't afford a private lawyer, you are going to have a public defender.

Your only option is to request another public defender. Get the hospital records and if you have to go to the judge's office and at least give them to his secretary to give to him to prove that the officer lied.

Either speak to her appointed lawyer and see if he will go down to the court and correct the situation, if possible, once all the proof is obtained or, hire an attorney. Realize that many judges will lock a bond if the client does not abide by the conditions and sometimes, despite the attorneys best effort, the judge may not release the client.

There are no Pre trial services in Wyoming, there is no supervision on bond. but for the sake of argument, have you tried making an appointment with the attorney? Also, most of my clients lie to their friends and family about what was really said, and what really happened. It is natural to do so, because you want your family in your side. If she violated bond by not appearing for drug testing twice, the court will set a bond, usually much higher again. You must post the higher bond. If the pretrial officer is lying, it will take concrete proof to show the court that he lied. If he lied under oath it could be perjury. I would calmly make an appointment with the attorney.

I would advise contacting the attorney representing your daughter, but do so with an appointment, not on the spur of the moment. Public defenders are more busy than ever, in these tough economic times, and you will have to see him at a time when he is not occupied in court. He should be able to motion the case back before the judge, in order to explain what happened, and be prepared to back up your story with concrete evidence, not heresay documents. Discuss with the public defender representing her. I would not be surprised if another court date has been assigned for your daughter, perhaps that is coming up soon, and I would guess she has a good chance of walking out of court, and avoiding a lengthy prison sentence at that time.

It doesn't sound like she has had a trial yet. What you discuss is pretrial detention issues. Perhaps your son-in-law wanted to use your daughter's time in the hospital for her to get clean and detoxify. From the sound of things, she has a serious drug problem. She apparently can't stay clean even when it means the loss of her liberty. My advice would be to get her into inpatient treatment so she can assist her attorney with the defense of the charge or charges she is facing. Other than that, the Washington State Bar Association does have a Modest Means program your daughter may qualify for. That's about all I can suggest.

I do not know enough about the case or your daughter.. I don't know if she has any priors.. I don't know what she has been charged with.. I don't know what the court set as bail.. I do not know the court's reasoning. I do not know how long this case has been going. These are just some of the many issues I would need answers to before I could begin to give you any kind of suggestion. You are in a tough situation. Perhaps just paying an attorney for a one time consult might be of some help in providing you with direction. Sorry I can't be of more help.

You may attempt to get a new attorney appointed but short of hiring your own attorney, your options are very limited.

You can retain a private lawyer just to investigate the missed date concerning the hospital and request a bail hearing. If it were me, I would try to get the prosecutor and the people who are involved in the drug testing to consent to her being released. Then I would get an affidavit from her husband indicating that he refused to give her money for gas and an affidavit from your daughter indicating that she was not able to make the drug test. Then I would get documentation from the hospital to prove that she was there and the reason why she was unable to make it. I would also add a report from a counselor indicating how many negative tests she had. The rest of the bail application would include information like her lack of prior criminal history, bench warrants, or missed appearances. Your public defender can also make such a bail motion but they will usually not take the time or effort to do all of that work. Your daughter is not a good decision maker and may have avoided the drug tests because she knew she would test positive for one or more drugs. She will have to stop using drugs and alcohol for years to come since she will probably be in treatment and on probation for 3-5 years when she takes the plea. If she is going to get a jail sentence the time she is spending in jail will be subtracted from the sentence and maybe she could get time served without probation if it is a misdemeanor. Not having gas money is not a valid excuse for missing a drug test, she is supposed to take a bus, get a ride, or walk. Most judges would have revoked her bail after two missed dates, but not if one of the dates had a valid explanation like being in the hospital. A good lawyer could probably get her out, but a public defender is not usually going to be able to win such a motion.

If the case is in a county with a big population the public defender is probably skilled. So, she pleaded "not guilty" and had had one or more hearings after that? Send a fax and leave telephone messages for the Public Defender. Or phone that office and find out when he/she is available. The PD should deal with all issues.

Unfortunately, if you can't afford an attorney, you are stuck with the PDs office. But the PDs office is usually very good, so if they can't get her out, chances are the Judge won't give her a bond.

Not being where you were told to be when you were told to be there would cause most any judge to think about putting one n jail. Doing it twice increases the probability. Having proof that she was not deliberatley violating the court's order would obviously be beneficial. PDs are usually pretty busy people. They can always use assistance in this type of evidence gathering. Oral testimaony does not carry much weight in this type of situation. \If you have provided some written support for her missing the appearances or tests, and the PD does not want to do anything, she can ask the court for a new attorney. Does not mean she will get one.

Unfortunately, violation of any pretrial release condition may result in confinement until the case is resolved. Even though she seems to have had a valid reason for the first missed appointment, the court is on solid ground for revoking based on the second. It will be more difficult now to meet with her appointed lawyer, but she should persistently ask to do so in advance of the trial. She needs i) to know what the state's evidence is, to explain her side of the story to her lawyer, in case she has a defense or mitigation, iii) to understand her options, and iv) to instruct her lawyer what her goal is.

You need to seriously consider hiring a private attorney. Ask for a payment plan, but be prepared to put something down. Private counsel will be able to provide your daughter more time and coordinate the cooperation and communication between all the agencies in a way that is not necessarily an attorney's duty, per Se, but more of an added service that private counsel can provide because of their fee.

Your daughter can ask the Public Defender to file a Motion to Modify the Conditions of Release, based upon the information you provided regarding the hospital and lack of carfare. It might help if her drug tests are negative.

You can ask to have a different public defender put on the case. If you can't afford a private lawyer, there is not much else you can do. But most private lawyers give free initial consultations and you may find one in your price range.

You have to be a thorn in the public defender's side to get them to help You as much as possible. The squeaky wheel gets oiled.

Although it would be best to retain an experienced criminal defense attorney to give your daughter's case the attention it needs, your public defender may be able to request another 'release hearing' in the not-to-distant future to request your daughter be released from custody pending a resolution of her case. Many of the private criminal defense attorneys may be less expensive than you anticipate and could certainly help her through this difficult time.

PD is right. If she misses two court dates they will most likely not bail or OR her. You should bring the hospital proof to the PD but the story that the husband wouldn't give her money for gas sounds like BS to a judge. She could have taken a bus; she could have walked; she could have borrowed the money from you.

Pre-trials are not fair or unfair. They are walk in say "trial" or "continue pre-trial" or "plead guilty and move to sentencing" unless one pleads guilty and moves to sentencing at the pre-trial against the wishes of the client they probably did the right thing. If you screw up your conditions of arraignment you go to jail. It isn't really a fair process where you can go in and say, "but judge I didn't have..." Obviously that is of little help. One idea may be to attempt to get the bail lowered, but that may not be possible (I literally have no idea). Bad situation - hopefully it resolves better. Good news is that the credit for time served offer may come up by the time of trial.

A Court may always review conditions of release and/or set bail if there has been some change in circumstance since the last hearing. The only way to proceed is have current counsel raise the issue at the next hearing or hire private counsel to set a new hearing on conditions of release.

Unfortunately, without the funds to hire your own attorney, you are at the mercy of the system, so to speak. Public Defenders are terribly overloaded with cases now and don't have the time in most instanced to devote to each case. Neither do probation officers. So, you have to take matters into your own hands. Get that documentation that she was in the hospital; write a declaration or other proof that she was unable to get to her second appointment (frankly, there is no excuse for this - she can't blame this on the "ex" as it is her responsibility to be in court; same goes for taking the drug tests and the other conditions of her probation). Every time she goes in to the probation office, have them sign some document that she was there. Get everything in writing. She had better comply with the orders and conditions of the court or this (violations/custody) is going to become a repeated pattern until she eventually ends up in prison (or county jail for the balance of her term). It is not up to the Public Defender to perform under her probationary grant - it's hers. The system is not going to bend over backwards for her so she is just going to have to hitch up her pants and do it without excuses.

Not much you can do other than fire the PD and represent yourself (which is almost always a bad idea). My advice is, save money and hire a private attorney who knows what he/she is doing.

Talk with your public defender. Get the information together about the circumstances of missing the tests and ask the lawyer to file another motion regarding release conditions.

Unfortunately, if you don't have the ability to retain a lawyer of your choosing, then you must go with a public defender. If this person is not doing enough for you, then your daughter will have to ask the court to appoint her a new public defender.