Withheld Judgement Not allowed

In a criminal appeal, the appellate judge will normally only examine the lower judge's ruling to try to detect abuse of discretion - meaning, basically, whether the lower judge made an illegal decision. The appellate judge does NOT substitute his or her own judgment for that of the lower judge: He won't examine the facts of the case on the record, conclude that he would have given a different sentence, and impose that change. He will only require a change if the sentence is clearly illegal in some way. Whether or not to withhold judgment is a discretionary call that the appellate court is unlikely to overturn, no matter how eggregious the facts of the case are: There is no statute or case law that requires the court to withhold judgement under specific circumstances. The good news, however, is that you can ask for the case to be dismissed if you complete your probation without violation (something you'd have to do for a withheld judgment, anyway). Once you successfully complete probation, ask your attorney about petitioning for a dismissal.