Question about a warrant?

Question

my son commited a crime of destruction of property on his apartment in 1994 he check his record 2 years ago and no warrant was found on him now it is 2008 and they have a warrant from 94 and it is for 500.00 can you tell me is it a status of limitation on this?

Answer 1

if its a bench warrent there is no statute of limitations, from what i heard..i would check with the courts...

Answer 2

There is no statute of limitations on a warrant.

The statute of limitations is from the time the crime is discovered until the person is charged. Issuing the warrant would stop the statute of limitations.

As long as the warrant was filed in time, the fact it did not show up on a records check will not help him.

Answer 3

Limitations only refers to the amount of time the prosecutors office has to file the case, not how long it takes to actually get it to court.

Answer 4

ok so all it's going to take is 500? does your son not have a job? he should just go pay the fines, or take the jail time to get rid of it, i would suggest paying the fines tho. it's not much i just got done paying over 3000 to the courts. He can be arrested at anytime if he doesnt' pay his fines.

Answer 5

First, checking his record, it depends on who did the checking and how extensive the check was. i.e. local, state, NCIC....

As far as the warrant. Its a lightweight $500 warrant so I assume its misdemeanor. True there is no statue of limitations for any crime after the warrant is issued, the warrant is still good.... that said there is a however (ever notice there is always a however?)

There is the "stale misdemeanor rule" An arrest for a misdemeanor must occur at the time, or as soon as possible (See The People of Calif.  v. Hampton (1985) 164 Cal.App.3rd 27. and Hill vs Leavy, 117 Ca.App 2nd, 667)

This rule has sucessfully been used defending themselfs against a warrant arrest. In fact more so as with a warrant there is no probable cause factor to adhere to, is a warrant, go get them.  The defence is: If the police wanted him so bad why diddnt they come get him in the past 14 years.

Tell your son to go down to the courthouse and schedule a court date to deal with this warrant. The judges like this, it shows your son is dealing with the warrant.

Couple of things though.

It may get dismissed

He may be remanded into custody, be ready for that.

The marshals/bailiffs office may have a policy to arrest if the clerk notifies them (we do not arrest if your doing the right thing by making a court date, some agencies do)

He may need to post bail up front, be ready

The warrant remains active until the court date, be careful and dont get stopped by the police.

If the warrant is recalled by the judge......

KEEP A COPY OF THAT FORM. It will take up to two days for the warrant to be pulled from "the system"

Lotsa luck