Arrest, Search, Seizure, Warrant Felony warrant and didn't know about it

[pjtim415]

I live in WY and was stopped by the police for not having my temp tags visible on my new truck. She eventually saw it but wanted to check my license anyways. She infomed me that I had a non-extradition warrant for me out of CA for assault (felony). Since the warrant was a non-extradition warrant, she would not arrest me. I had no idea what this warrant was about. I had my girlfriend call CA to find out. Apparantly, the warrant was issued after she and I had a fight back in Jan, 2001. I was stupid and push her to the ground and left. Her roommate called the police and the police took a report. A couple weeks later, my girlfriend and I made up, got back together and moved to WY. She did inform me that she filed a police report about the incident. The police never contacted me in any way before we moved. So I never gave it a second thought. The warrant was eventually issued towards the end of Feb, 2001 - right after we moved out of CA. I want to clear this up but don't know how to go about it. The court clerk in CA said that I can make an appointment to appear in court. Is this true? Or can I hire a lawyer to represent me without me being there. I am a contractor and it is hard for me to take off work (financial reasons and this is a busy time of year for me). I also considered going to CA to turn myself in, but I've never been in trouble with the law before and don't know if they're going to put me in jail for any length of time. I can't financially afford that. My girlfriend and I are both working full time jobs and raising two kids. We have a mortgage and three car payments. Is this warrant going to follow me for the rest of my life if I don't do anything about it or is there a statute of limitations for something like this? What would the reprocussions be if I don't do anything about this? Any helpful comments would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[CdwJava]

Your best bet woul dbe to get an attorney in CA to help you out in this. And, expect to have to come to CA at least to be appear in court and to be booked ... your attorney could arrange your quick release prior to surrender.

Failure to take care of this can result in your arrest at some point - and can result in your detention virtually every time you are contacted by the police.

Further, having an arrest warrant will make many good jobs unavailable to you, and will make you ineligible for many types of social services, SSI, loans, and government aid. This WILL haunt you until you take care of it.

- Carl

 

[pjtim415]

Thanks for the info and advice. I thought about it and decided to go back to CA to take care of my situation. I usually take my one week vacation during October. Should I contact a lawyer before heading out there? Would I be able to take care of this in a week? I doubt that I would do any jail time since I've never been in trouble with the police before, but I'm sure that I'll get some kind of probation and/or anger management classes. Would I be able to transfer my sentence back to WY?

 

[CdwJava]

Thanks for the info and advice. I thought about it and decided to go back to CA to take care of my situation. I usually take my one week vacation during October. Should I contact a lawyer before heading out there? Would I be able to take care of this in a week? I doubt that I would do any jail time since I've never been in trouble with the police before, but I'm sure that I'll get some kind of probation and/or anger management classes. Would I be able to transfer my sentence back to WY?

If you have to serve time you will have to do so in CA. They might be willing to transfer probation to WY (if WY will accepot it) or allow you to take the required classes there. But, all of this is dependent upon you returning to handle the matter.

Keep in mind that CA is under no obligation to allow you to transfer probation conditions to WY, and WY is certainly under no obligation to allow you to do so.

- Carl