Five Ways to Stay Out of Trouble in 2018

Five ways to stay out of trouble in the New Year:

Happy New Year!! I hope you have a prosperous, peaceful one. It is no one’s goal to get arrested and charged with a criminal offense in ANY year, and to that effect I am going to give you five ways you can avoid an arrest this year:

1. Do not drive with marijuana in your car:

I do not suggest being a heavy user of marijuana. It is not the best path to prosperity and productivity. However, if you are going to use marijuana in any quantity, keep it at your home, locked away safely. Driving with it is a very bad idea because the scent of marijuana gives a police officer probable cause to search your car and/or prolong the detention long enough to call a K9 to do a sniff-search. If the marijuana is found, you will be charged with possession of marijuana. If you must drive with it, limit the times you do this and only do it when it cannot be avoided. When you drive with it, keep it an air tight container out of view, or even invest in a portable vacuum sealer to seal it up before driving. NEVER SMOKE MARIJUANA IN YOUR CAR.

2. Always have a safe ride home after drinking:

If you are going to drink alcohol away from your home, always, always arrange for a sober (completely sober – not just “not that drunk”) ride home. Take a cab, have a designated driver, take a ride share, or take a means of public transportation. Arrests for DWI are increasing nationwide, and even if you are not truly intoxicated and have only consumed a limited amount of alcohol, it is an arduous undertaking to beat a DWI. It is also expensive.

3. Do not gamble at shoplifting:

You may not get caught every single time if you are a habitual shoplifter. But you will get caught eventually. Shoplifting charges are embarrassing, a pain to dispose of, and will disqualify you from many, many jobs.

4. Do not drink to the point of oblivion in public:

Public intoxication arrests are common. If you get very intoxicated and start causing a scene around a police officer, or if you are intoxicated and cannot seem to find your way home, you will probably get arrested for public intox. APD uses these as a “end the situation” type of arrest – if they don’t know what else to do with you but they have to figure out something because you can’t stay out on the street due to your intoxication – they will take you to jail for Public Intoxication.

5. Do not stay in toxic relationships:

If you are in a toxic, dangerous relationship – GET OUT. Do it as soon as you can safely. Yelling, verbal abuse and emotional abuse will lead to physical abuse and this will lead to intervention by the system. Even if you call the police because you are the one being abused, it is not always the case that the police arrest the right person. Sometimes they mistake defensive injuries as the primary injuries and arrest the person that was the actual victim. If you need resources, call the Domestic Violence Hotline.

I hope that all my clients, my potential clients, and their friends and family can have a peaceful year this year and stay out of the system. It is so time and resource consuming to get arrested over and over again, so be smart and employ these strategies above so you can stay free this year.

Happy New Year from Stefanie Collins Attorney at Law.

Pitfalls of Probation: What You Need to Know BEFORE You Sign Up

Sometimes, probation is a great offer on your case. If you are offered probation on a serious felony in which a long prison term is also an option under the law, you need to seriously consider taking it despite the multiple restrictions on your freedom you will experience.

However, on misdemeanors and state jail felonies, it’s a different story. You may be better off pleading to a short term in jail to finish the case. Or, in the alternative, if you are offered a reduction or a dismissal in exchange for doing something, like a class or a community service, you need to do it to avoid probation.

There are many, many pitfalls to probation. Many people approach probation as if it is an easy way to avoid jail or get out of jail quickly if you are in jail pretrial, but this is absolutely not the case and you need to rid yourself of this assumption. Probation is not easy and you have the threat of jail hanging over your head the entire time.

When you are on probation, you are seriously restricted in your freedom in many, many ways. You are given certain requirements and certain policies by which you must abide, and if you fail to do so your probation officer is going to file what is called a “motion to revoke probation”. Once this motion is filed, it will generate a warrant. You are usually given a no bond on that warrant, meaning you will not be allowed out on any type of bond. If a judge chooses to set a bond, it is really, really unlikely you will be allowed out of jail on a personal bond. If you cannot get a surety bond, you will be in jail until the motion to revoke probation is resolved.

I will discuss three common ways you might violate your probation:

• Committing a new offense: You will get a motion to revoke probation filed if you commit a new offense of a Class B misdemeanor or above. Do not think under any circumstances that your probation officer is “cool” and will not file a motion if you get arrested again. S/he will and you will go back to jail even if you are released on the new offense already. If you cannot make bond on the new offense, then you will be held on the motion to revoke and the new offense.

• Drug and alcohol use: It is absolutely a violation of your probation to use alcohol at all or any kind of illicit drug or prescription drug if it is not prescribed to you. If you go into a probation meeting looking like you are intoxicated or hung over, the probation officer is going to test you – and if you test positive s/he is going to file a motion to revoke. There is no room for just a single positive test.

• Absconding or missing meetings with no phone call or attempt to reschedule: missing meetings with your probation officer is not allowed. If you miss meetings and make no attempt to reschedule, you will get a motion to revoke filed.

I get many phone calls from people who want off probation and tell me that “they did not realize this is what they were getting into” when they pled to probation. I represent many clients on revocations of probation. Probation is not an easy path. Jail sounds like a terrible fate, but it is important to remember that you may go back to jail anyway if you are filed on for revocation.

If you are facing a probation revocation, call me today to talk about the possibilities of how to resolve your case.

Jury Trials: Lessons Learned

I have tried three cases in the past month.  Two of my juries returned a guilty verdict in spite of what I thought was enough to create reasonable doubt in the state’s case. 

I talked to the juries afterward.  It was pretty clear to me from what they said and their body language that they were left with some residual doubt about my client’s guilt – not “unreasonable doubt” like the state says in their closing arguments or a “possible doubt” but a real doubt. 

It was also pretty clear to me that they had expected my client and I to not only introduce doubt into the equation but “prove” our case somehow, despite the court’s instruction that that was not our job.

I say all this to point out two things:

If you are called to jury duty and you are selected to be a juror on a criminal case,  you need to commit yourself to returning a not guilty verdict, IN SPITE OF YOUR EMOTIONS, if the state does not prove its case BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT.  If you are left at the end of the case “not sure what happened” or “could see that he (the Defendant) may not be guilty” (actual words of my jurors this past month – who convicted) you HAVE to acquit the Defendant.  It doesn’t matter if you feel like what happened was wrong, upsetting, or immoral.  Unless the state has proved it to you, you have to put those emotions aside and cannot make the Defendant pay for what happened. 

If you are a Defendant, you need to be aware of the risk you are taking by having a jury trial.  Sometimes there really is no downside (there wasn’t in any of my cases this month), but sometimes there is.  You may be risking decades more in prison.  You may be turning down a deferred adjudication.  These are real risks.  And your jury may not be convinced. Your jury may doubt your guilt.  AND THEY MAY CONVICT ANYWAY.  You can never be sure what a jury is going to do.

Lastly, this may be controversial but I cannot help but notice, that both of my “guilty” clients were people of color and my not guilty one was white.  It is not out of the question that this played into the jurors decisions. 

Just some things to think about.  Please, if you are called for jury duty and feel like you cannot be fair – and cannot acquit if the evidence does not prove the case beyond all reasonable doubt – tell the attorneys who question you.  If you can be fair, if you can hold the state to its burden, and can acquit if the case calls for it – don’t think up an excuse to get off.  We need you to make this system work and stop bad prosecutions.

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