I was stopped in my own driveway already out of the car walking to the house when the cop pulled up. I blew a .13 and was arrested. I went to the drunken tank and sat there until I was released later that day. I paid a 12-dollar booking fee and that was the last I heard of this. I called and called but my ticket was not turned in that I was ever aware of and I just received a letter today informing of the court date and that I apparently missed one already.
It is possible that the delay was due to other testing or waiting on a warrant issue. In any event, you will need to resolve the warrant and schedule a court date. If you wait and do nothing, you can be arrested and held on a higher bond. An attorney would be able to resolve this quickly and perhaps get a personal bond. Further, consult with an attorney to see if there are other issues significant to the defense of your case.
There may be an issue of the statute of limitations; also, there may be an issue of failure to prosecute within a year's time. You need a lawyer to help you on this. Either hire one or ask for a public defender at your arraignment.
When was the first court date that you missed? That is an important issue. If the prosecutor failed to file the charges against you within one year from your arrest, it may be possible to get your charges dismissed. There may be other issues with the prosecutors case. Based on what you wrote, that you missed a court date, I am assuming the court issued a bench warrant against you. Since your arrest was almost 2 years ago, even if the charges were initially brought within one year from arrest, it may be possible to get charges dismissed. Also, it's possible that the prosecutor could have issues with their case (ie. if they can't find the maintenance and calibration records of their breath machine, etc.). You should speak to a DUI attorney in your area to discuss your case in more detail. Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss further.
Your question requires an attorney consultation. It is not a simple question that can be answered on this type of forum. There are many factors that would need to be considered and evaluated. There is a possibility that the matter could be dismissed based upon the statute of limitations and right to a speedy trial depending on when the criminal case was filed. I strongly suggest that you contact an experienced criminal law attorney for a face-to-face consultation and give him/her all of the facts surrounding your case. He/she would then be in a better position to analyze your case and advise you of your options.
It sounds like you will need a lawyer. The time passed since the event could work for or against you. It may work in your favor if the state has lost any evidence or any witnesses are no longer available. On the other hand, you haven't been able to investigate the charge since they waited nearly two years. Depending on the circumstances of the case, it may be possible to get some of the evidence suppressed, but a lawyer would need to look at all the facts to know.
You need to get a lawyer to fight the DUI case in court. In some jurisdictions, the DUI charge will not get filed into court for several months. The statute of limitations for a DUI in Washington is 2 years. Oftentimes, your first court notice will go to an old address, and you might not get it. Then the court date comes and goes, and you have a warrant for missing your first court appearance. Usually the delay in taking your case to court will work to your advantage in the end.
I would suggest that you immediately engage in attorney, defend yourself to the point a you are able to do so and most certainly respond to the current court summons. You should try to make it clear to the court that you did not receive any previous notice, and any proof you might have that you were contacting record in the past would be helpful. There are really very few things which upset a court more than coming to the conclusion that they are being ignored.
You may have a due process problem which you need to speak with a lawyer about. In California, depending on your facts, you may be able to do a "Serna" motion to have the case dismissed.
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