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lynn74410 · May 21, 2012, 09:05 AM

My son has been charged with a crime - but all we are told is the charge, not the details. The police department says a lawyer must file for discovery to get this information. Why do I need to hire an attorney just to find out the details of the charge. How can someone reasonable defend against a charge without being told what exactly they supposedly did? This occurred in Macomb County Michigan.

AK lawyer · May 21, 2012, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by lynn74410

... Why do I need to hire an attorney just to find out the details of the charge. How can someone reasonable defend against a charge without being told what exactly they supposedly did? ...

Technically, your son has as much right as his lawyer would have to get this information. But depending on how serious this crime is, your son does have the right to appointed counsel (such as a public defender), if he cannot afford one. And in any case he would be foolish to try to defend himself. Has he been advised of his right to appointed counsel?

lynn74410 · May 21, 2012, 09:43 AM

I would assume he has been advised and has requested a public defender. They will not allow me to speak to him when I call and jail services calls can not be processed on my cell phone. Typically, from when he's been in trouble before and what I have seen others go through, they do not meet their public defender until they go to court for the preliminary hearing, or in some cases the court date after that, when the prosecuter offers a plea. Which really doesn't give you much time to even know what your accused of, let alone defend your actions. This charge is a felony and I would think that he would be given time to form a defense, but it seems to me that the prosecuter waits till the very last min before turning over the files, and the public defenders are not really interested in postponing anything cause they don't get paid a lot. So the representation of a public defender is really nothing more than a smoke screen... I was hoping at least to be able to find out the specifics of the charge with more than 5 minutes before he sees a judge.

AK lawyer · May 21, 2012, 04:24 PM

So plead not guilty. The preliminary hearing isn't the trial, after all. By all means he shouldn't take a plea at that time. The n.g. plea can always be changed.

And he shouldn't care at all what the PDs are or are not interested in. If he needs a postponement he should insist on it.

Fr_Chuck · May 21, 2012, 07:24 PM

You are correct seldom will he have a public defender before the preliminary hearing, and may not even have one then, of if he does, it will be the one on duty for court that day.

They are there at this point just to be sure his legal rights are honored.
And that is to plead not guilty. At this point even guilty people plead not guilty so they can start working on a plea deal. ( if not already done)

excon · May 22, 2012, 10:35 AM

Hello l:

What the others are telling you, is that your SON is in charge of his defense - NOT the lawyer. That means HE makes the decisions after the lawyer explains his options...

Now, I agree that PD's DON'T get managed very often IF they're managed at all. So, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he got resistance. Nonetheless, he shouldn't LAY down for the lawyer any more than he should lay down for the cops. Once, however, a PD knows that he's dealing with somebody who's AWARE, and he should start acting like a defense lawyer. If not, your son can FIRE him, and get a new one appointed. That might even be a GOOD strategy. Clearly, the newly appointed lawyer WON'T be from PD's office.

excon