OK so here is the situation: 2 years ago this December a friend of mine was arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to sell, possession of marijauna, and possession of paraphonalia. He served 1 night in jail and was released on bond. When he went to court he was able to drop the charges down to a felony charge of possession of cocaine and pled adjudcated withheld. He was given 2 years probabtion or 18 months good behavior release since it was his first time and also had 50 work camp days to complete. This court date was in April 2007. He had the 2 years to do his work camp and pay his fines but once he signed up for work camp he had to follow the 1 time a week rule to attend camp. He signed up for work camp in September 2007 and did his days every weekend until the end of January 2008 straight non-stop. He also completed paying all his fees by February 2008. The rest of this year he has been checking in with his PO once a month. He has NEVER failed a drug test and has never VIOLATED! Last week his PO called his lawyer given clearance to start his early termination papers. He was told that if by nov 5th he had not yet received his early termination letter he still needed to check in. he went in today to check in and unfortunately failed his drug test. His PO stopped the processing on his early termination and said he would need to start the violation paper work. He is sending his test off to a lab and if it comes back positive he will be violated and eventually a warrant will be issued for his arrest. His lawyer informed him that he will more then likely have a warrant issued, it would be in his best interest to turn himself in, he would go to jail, appear before the judge in regards to his violation, have bond set, and then need to go to court to determine the state of his violation and the punishment. He was told that more than likely he would get the 30 days in jail and then at the end of that 30 days he would be off probation and the option to have the felony expunged and sealed may or may not be available anymore depending on the judge. My question is from this secenario what is the 99.9% likelihood of his punishment (jail, remaining on probation, or chance to get off seeing as paper work was already in the process, etc) and long term effect oh his life i.e. being a convicted felon, if it will be expunged and sealed, etc.

Hello f:

I don't know if they'll make him do time, but they won't let him off probation early. Sure, he may be able to get his record expunged, but he'll probably have to wait ten years or so. It's true, he may have a hard time finding work with a felony conviction.

excon

Is a lawyer better than a public defender in avoiding jail time?? And what about when the put the warrant out? Will he just go to jail and then in his first appearance be released??

We have been told for leon county he will have to do automatic 30 days is this true do you know anything about that?

Hello again, florida:

A public defender IS a lawyer. Don't know about anything being automatic.

excon

I know a public defender is a lawyer I just didn't know if a paid lawyer from the outside has better chances then the public defener assigned to you.

PD vs private lawyer - Not really any difference since the case has already gone through the conviction stage and is now in the post conviction stage. The outcome will hinge on what the Judge thinks about the violation and what the Judge determines the punishment for violation will be. I agree with the attorney saying they'll do some time on this violation. I don't think they'll be eligible for the sealed felony business either since they did not successfully complete the probation.

Hello again, Florida:

The quality of an attorney is NOT based upon who he receives his paycheck from.

excon

Good luck bro. I too am on felony probation and a violation is the amount of 90-180 days in jail and upon release the terms of your probation will be reinstated. Meaning that once you are released your probation time will be extended until you can prove to the court that you are a law abiding citizen and this does not happen within a 30 day time span. Feel bad for your boy but that is his own stupidity by messing around when he was on the final stretch. Don't take chances with your life. You lose time and time is your life

My son is sitting in county jail waiting to be transferred to a pdc, to serve a 4 to 6 month sentence, but he has been sitting waiting to be transferred will the time count towards his sentence

Hello just:

It should, but you/he can't count on ANYTHING being automatic. He needs to be PROACTIVE in his detention. There will be people who will know if he's been credited his jail time or not. He just needs to ask when he get's there.

excon

What about pdc's that are closing, as well as behavioral centers and diagnostics can they just hold him for however long?

Some states could be different but I used to work for corrections in ky and it did count toward the sentence.