Your Case is NOT Dismissed - Avoid Making This Crucial Mistake After an Arrest | Washington State

helter illegal Warriors I'm begging you I'm begging you to get this part right what I'm going to cover in this video is one of the most confusing situations for anyone who's been arrested for a crime and they think that the situation is over almost always it's not stay tuned I'll explain this is the video for you my name is attorney Lance fryer I'm a defense attorney in Linwood Washington my law offer has been defending people charged with crimes all throughout Washington state for more than 20 years they're putting out these videos to help educate the public so if you find this useful please like and please subscribe more people get the help they need and I'm just going to jump right into it I have done a couple videos on this subject and I want to just keep trying to make it clear because this is one of the biggest gotchas in the criminal system in Washington state and what do I mean well police officers can arrest people for crimes but whether or not you actually are charged with the crime depends on the type of police officer the jurisdiction that arrests you and the type of crime that you've been arrested for and the criminal system the court system does a terrible job in my opinion of letting people who are so scared and terrified and their relatives are scared and terrified when somebody gets arrested letting them know what the difference is and that if someone isn't immediately charged with the crime that that it's still likely going to come down the road later and the person arrested is going to get charged later so what do I mean by arrest versus Charge well I think we know what an arrest is an officer stops someone for a crime a DUI domestic violence whatever it is I put the handcuffs on right you put the handcuffs on and they take them either to the police station or to the jail where they get held most of the time to see a judge you could get held to see a judge you might not get held to see a judge but in any case that's an arrest what is a charge with a crime well being charged with a crime means that the government the prosecuting Authority either through the police officer or through a prosecuting attorney files an official criminal complaint that lists the RCW their device code of Washington and it says you are hereby accused of Assault 4 and violation of RCW such and such are DUI and violation of RCW 46 such and such and that is an actual criminal charge and then after someone's charged they enter a plea of not guilty so why else this seems simple what's what's the problem well the problem is is that some jurisdictions allow their police officers to write the criminal complaint on behalf of the prosecuting Authority and initiate the actual criminal charge in court and some of the jurisdictions do not let their officers do that the officers can only make an arrest and so um the rule of thumb that I live by when I get 100 phone calls from people through the week or on the weekend the rule of thumb is I try to figure out um is there an actual charge yet or just an arrest and how do I figure that out well for the most part if the jurisdiction of the law enforcement agency effectuating doing the arrest is Broad then they probably do not have the authority to file the charge themselves so I think a sheriff they covered entire County areas the state patrol pretty much covers the whole state official and Wildlife definitely do not initiate charges on their own um uh you know federal agencies federal court a whole different thing so if it's a broad jurisdiction State Patrol or Sheriff that's rule of thumb um the odds are that there's only been an arrest and not an actual charge yet if the arresting agency is a local law enforcement agency city of Edmonds city of Seattle City of uh Shoreline city of Linwood city of you know Mountlake Terrace you name it then the rule of thumb is it's very likely that the officer has filed the charge themselves and now there's an actual charge that's going to proceed and that one isn't confusing because that's what we expect I've been arrested and now I'm charged so what is the confusing situation the confusing situation is the first one where you are arrested but not charged and so what happens in that situation well if it's the County officer that's made the arrest and I'll take one step back no officer can charge a felony officers can only arrest for felonies so it's a major felony offense then we know they're not charged yet okay but so you're arrested but you're not charged why is it confusing well the court rules say that the judge can only maintain restrictions on someone's freedom on an arrested individual that is not yet charged for three court days and so it's various jurisdiction and jurisdiction this is why you need to contact an attorney but what happens is there's either a first something called a first appearance sometimes it happens actually they take them to court and sometimes it's just on paper with the the person arrested the inmate doesn't know anything about it the first appearance where the judge sets conditions either orders the arrested person released or orders them held for bail in such conditions like no contact or no drinking or and you know driving without a license you name it and then there is oftentimes a second appearance in Snohomish County it's done on paper that's not real and King County really got to go to court a second appearance that has to be within those three court days to determine whether or not the prosecuting attorney is going to file a charge against the person who was arrested and that's the confusing part so um if the prosecuting attorney does not file a charge here's what the defendant the suspect is told your case was dismissed all right the case is dismissed well the case isn't dismissed the probable cause hold where the court could only hold you for three days without the prosecutor filing the charge has to be dismissed because that's what the court rules say now the judge may say hey that doesn't mean that it's over you still might get a complaint and what we hear is oh it's we could something could happen but it won't some courts will give you a piece of paper but it is not made clear at all that almost certainly a charge is still coming down the road because you got arrested right there's a there's a police report that says you did something wrong so wrong you were thrown in jail does it make sense that's over no and it is not over but time and time again time and time and time and time again we get uh people telling us oh yeah well it got dismissed or I got something a year later I can't believe it I thought it was dismissed and it's so frustrating uh because it's an unforced error by the criminal system it's unforced to not and it's so confusing and unfair to the person arrested who thinks they can go about their life and they're off scot-free and it's a nice feeling um but it isn't true so what do we need to do in that situation where you've been arrested you're not charged it's dismissed well what you need to do is find yourself an attorney to try to help you improve your chances of not getting charged or at least trying to do it yourself you can do a public disclosure request to get the police report right that justified your arrest you could get an attorney to help you perhaps present your side of things to the prosecutor once they get the report and they say oh it's totally wrong if the alleged victim doesn't want charges pressed it's not up to them in a domestic violence case but they can say things to help right you can't just bury your head in the sand and and do nothing and when the court doesn't make it clear that you could still come back to court and I don't know if courts understand it's not clear but if you have clients any of us defense attorneys out there in the world we hear it every day it's not clear right because we want to believe the dream that it's dismissed and nothing happened to me you know I was just on the phone for for for you know days and days with the family of somebody who who I thought they wouldn't get charged and they would get released and they did and now they just think it's over and they disappear and I can't help them because they they haven't heard the correct thing in the correct way in my opinion at least it wasn't communicating the way they could hear from the court system so the court system does its best but I think there's always rooms for room for improvement so what am I begging I'm begging that if you get arrested for a crime and you're told your case is dismissed do not believe it talk to an attorney find out if there's still there's nothing to worry about now or it's the situation where the type of crime you're arrested for or the type of officer who arrested you didn't have the power to charge you and therefore it was a am I going to get charged in three court days or am I not not happens which is more more often than not you don't get charged in three court cases against these limits to the system you get released you told us dismissed and you think it's over don't believe it okay because uh find out if it's true by talking to an attorney because I don't want you wasting all that time it just really upsets me it it infuriates me I'd like to say it breaks my heart but it doesn't just makes me mad because people don't understand and then they're so upset and shocked when something comes in the mail a year or two later and non-felonies most of them are two years to charge felonies three years or more and they wasted they're flabbergasted they're devastated and they wasted all that time and maybe we could have avoided it so um thank you for listening to this if you have this one is personal to me I hate to see people suffer it it's just very very uh not okay let's do it so if you found this useful please like and please subscribe more people get the help they need more importantly if you need some help if you've been arrested if you're not sure what's going on here in Washington state give my office a call assuming that we have the capacity to respond to what you're talking about it is in Washington we're going to listen to what happened we're going to identify a way forward and we're going to be there for you thank you [Music]

Channel: The Law Offices of Lance Fryrear

Views: 9,990

Keywords: washington criminal attorney, lance fryrear, lance fryrear attorney, Washington, Attorney, Criminal Defense, Lawyer, Fire, The Lance Lawyers, Lance Lawyers, TheLanceLawyers, criminal charges, criminal charge, washington attorney, case dismissed, what does it mean if your case is dismissed, is my case dismissed, can police charge me with a crime, can police file charges, is it police or prosecutor who file charges, what is a court jurisdiction, jurisdiction, prosecutor vs police

Id: XN1-JptcFXc

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2023