About 3 months ago my friend picked me up in his vehicle and we were driving around. He was showing me his fresh bag of pot which had approx 3 ounces in it. Next thing we knew there was flashing lights and we were in the back of a police car. Since my DUMB friend was also carrying bags around the cops charged us both for trafficking. Got fingerprinted, got given a court date. tried to explain it wasnt my pot but noone really cared. As a law abiding citizen I appeared for court once ...to find some special guy aint around so its adjourned as a great honest guy I appear for my second court date ...but since my friend is under 18, where as i am over 18 they are trialing us seperately so at this court appearance they decide they dont know what to do until my friends trial is worked out and its adjourned AGAIN. I appear another time for another adjournment... my friends case is doing nothing but being adjourned as well. But since I had explained the scenario it had become an agreed thing that I wasnt trafficking and it was simple possesion I was looking at. Which is 40 hours community service was my worst case scenario and with no drug record afterwards because this is also my first offense.(not too bad) But as a stupid pothead I got real high and completely forgot my court date I dont know how but I just completely forgot. Coming up to the date I had set reminders and told myself I wouldnt make such a stupid mistake. Literally just this morning I was sitting around thinking "theres something I forgot to do... oh fuck!" I just phoned the court house explaining my mistake and was told there is a warrant for my arrest and my option is to go to the police station turn myself in, get arrested again, and then be issued a new court date. Now heres the problem, in this new trial they are going to look at it as a trafficking charge in court without the previous scenario and explanation. I really cant get a trafficking charge that will be terrible. I really truthfully was not trafficking any pot so justice says I should be fine, but im really kind of doubting it. ANY advice or help please?
why did your friend not just take the hit for his bud? also if you really do hid this from your parents wow haha
is that a serious answer? Like I have been keeping this under wraps just trying to get it to go away. my parents dont even know and I dont have alot of money. But if its necessary money isnt that bad.
You obviously dont have more than a bench warrant, meaning they arent persuing you, but they will arrest you if you get in trouble again. Your best option is to go in, and explain you honestly forgot it because they have been changing the dates so much you just completely lost track (take full responsibility for it, or they wont really give a fuck what you say). My friend got an alcohol ticket... oh summer of 07. And they didnt issue him a court date at the time of the charge, so he was told to call a number the next day, and get it. So he calls, his last nane is ridiculous to try to spell and i guess the lady couldnt spell it and couldnt find his court date, and said he didnt have one. So for months he was unaware he was actually in trouble, he figured maybe they dropped the charge or something. He actually left the country for 3 months to Europe during this time. Came back, and tried to get a job, thje background check popped up a bench warrant. He went in over a year after the ticket was issued, they were like oh, whatever, and he just had to do alcohol classes for the ticket, nothing extra was added for not appearing in court. If your nice about it, they will probably be nice too
From my experience, they are always much nicer about missing a court date if you turn yourself in. If a cop ends up bringing you in they dont seem to be as nice
It also means a cop busted you doing something else, they only find you if they catch you doing something again. Could turn a speeding ticket into a fiasco of failure to appear in court which could lead them to believe you were trafficking and charge you hahaha
Okay good to hear maybe i overreacted, and its not that terrible of a situation, expecially if i turn myself in. What are my chances of them remembering the previous details of my trial? Like can i be like "yeah i know it says trafficking but heres the story..." and be listened to still, cause thats honestly how the situation was originally before I screwed things up by simply forgetting. BTW i havnt ever been there to confirm my friend did this but he told me he has totally tried to take all the blame for the pot. He says he told the cops im innocent. But idk obviously they dont think im innocent and unfortunately I do question the integrity of this friend.
Did they play the whole "tell us who you got it from and we will cut you a deal" because if not, they probably are aware it wasnt your bud. They always try to go up the chain, im sure they have thoroughly tried to get that info from your friend lol
Did your friend ever tell the judge it was all his and you were not involved? Thats the way it sounds and if not thats a shitty friend
yea sometimes thats true about him Like i said he tells me he tells everyone its his pot. At the same time though, he was the first guy i told about missing the court date. His reaction was "oh, haha dont fucking worry about it. Your not gonna get in any trouble for that" he doesnt seem to get it Worst part is hes under 18 so he will almost deifnitely get a better sentence than me.
okay I get it, im stupid. Plus duty counsel (free lawyering in canada) told me my charge would become simple possession easily and that would become community service very easily. I really thought things were under control. The ultimate problem is whether or not when i get arrested again they treat it as a brand new trafficking case, or if they read into their files and start things off where they were before. Does anybody here know how this works? Can i still get a lawyer now? Seriously guys I got a credit card ill use it to pay if I have to, I just cant get fucked over from this.
Lol, im surprised phone records havent been used here.... im sure your friend has plenty of texts confirming he sells, and you probably have texts comfirming you buy weed.... cops are pretty bad at this game
Find out who the judge is and if it's an open court. If you're allowed to just go in and sit there, show up for the next day that judge is having court and wait for all defendants to be called. If you have to, sit there all day until you're one of the last ones left and they ask you what's up, then tell em you just forgot and you don't know what to do and you don't want to be in trouble and you're sorry and you're here now and you just wanna make sure everything's ok and that you know what you need to do and hope for the best. Worst case scenario they arrest you on the spot, so make sure you've got bond money. Maybe the nice judge though can just take care of it all right then. Some judges are really cool like that, others will throw you in jail. You gotta get turned in anyway, at least this way you have a chance of not getting booked again.
Thats not a terrible idea: Play ignorant, and hope for a nice judge. Compared to simply showing up at the police station to hope for a nice cop... at least its the judges job to be fair.
I'll tell you I've had it go both ways before though. But even then it's like they just arrest you in court, and then you go back in the courtroom an hour or so later and finish up the case. They'll usually throw out the FTA since you were actually there, appearing in the court so long as you're not a dick.