What are my options when there is an arrest warrant out for me?

San Diego criminal defense lawyer Stefano Molea talks about the different options available when there’s an arrest warrant.

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Law Office of David P. Shapiro
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San Diego, CA 92103
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Transcript:
- Hi, Stefano Molea here, San Diego criminal defense lawyer and partner at the Law Office of David P. Shapiro where we help good people regain control of their future when charged with a crime. So maybe you have an arrest warrant out for you, and you're wondering, what are your options? Does this automatically mean I'm gonna have, you know, the Fugitive Task Force or a SWAT team show up at my house or come find me at work to arrest me? So in this video, I want to talk about some options that might be available depending on a particular situation, and discuss some things to consider when making that decision. So let's say that someone does have an arrest warrant out and let's say that that arrest warrant is for $100,000. Most people think, well, that means that I have to get arrested, and then I have to post bail and I have to be processed through, you know, the local jail, and essentially then get out, hopefully on bond, if I can afford it, and then go to court. That's not always the case. It's actually possible to proactively post that bond with the sheriff's department, typically, and clear the warrant and generate a court date without requiring you to actually be booked into county jail and then have to be processed. In San Diego County, for example, that can sometimes take 8, 12, 14 hours, right? Somebody gets booked, even if the bail bondsman is contacted and pre-screened and everything ahead of time, and they go to try to post it, they have to wait for a certain time, and then while the paperwork gets sort of processed and the person gets processed through their own internal system, it could take a long time. Certainly not a great experience, and especially if there's a way to avoid it. So I feel like this is something people should be at least aware of, that there is an option. And I'm surprised by how many criminal defense lawyers don't know that that's something that can be done for a client. Now, does this mean this is the right answer for every case? No, and let me give you just an example of a situation where it wouldn't be. So let's say there's an active warrant for $100,000 and it's for a specific charge, obviously, but let's say that things have gotten worse. So let's say, for example, it's for attempted murder, right? That's what the original warrant is out for, okay? And the bail is probably gonna be more than 100,000 on that, but let's say, just as an example, okay? And then after the warrant is issued, it's determined that the person has passed. Well now, we're looking at a murder charge, okay? And so it doesn't make a lot of sense to post the bail proactively for the attempted murder arrest warrant when you know that once you get to court, there's a very, very good chance that your bail is gonna be raised or you're gonna be taken into custody on no bail. And what would happen in that scenario is that you've just maybe spent 7, 8, 9, $10,000 in order to post that $100,000 bail, again, just as an example, and guess what? That money is spent, you can't get it back. It's essentially the fee that you pay the bail bonds company to post 100,000 so that the warrant can get cleared. And then what happens, you go to court, and you get taken into custody, and you lose that money, and you can't get it back. So that's one example, right? And there's a lot of other factors to consider. You know, if there are limited funds and someone is interested in hiring a retained attorney, a private attorney, and you know, then you've gotta figure out, you know, how you wanna allocate those resources. And another consideration is, you know, what are the chances, as we talked about, maybe when you go to court, you can have the judge potentially release you on your own recognizance. So even though an arrest warrant was issued for a certain bail amount, if the arguments are there, because again, when the arrest warrant is signed, the judge doesn't get any input from the potential defendant, right? Or the accused, or you know, his or her lawyer, right? So then when you get to court, the judge is gonna make a bail determination and a custody determination, and that's when the defense can make an argument for own recognizance release or supervised own recognizance, in which case, there won't be a need to post any bail. And so making that assessment ahead of time as a determination made about how this issue should be approached is really important.