If no plea deal takes place at the arraignment, and you plead “not guilty,” then your case moves toward trial. But first, your defense attorney will have another chance to fight for you at your preliminary hearing.
Here, the defense finally gets access to the police report and all other evidence given already to the prosecution. This is the “discovery” process, and it better equips us to fight and win your case.
The prosecutor will unveil his or her evidence at the preliminary hearing and seek to persuade the judge that not only was the alleged crime actually committed but that you are very likely the one who committed it. The judge must then decide if this evidence is weighty enough for you to be “held to answer” in a jury trial. If not, the case will be dismissed. This may happen if the witnesses against you are not deemed “credible” or if existing evidence is too heavily “conflicting.”
The defense will be given not only the evidence being used against you but also any evidence deemed “exculpatory,” meaning seemingly in your favor. It is your right to have such evidence, if it exists, revealed to your defense attorney at the preliminary hearing, and a failure to do so can get your case dismissed.
Note that we at Leah Legal will take this opportunity to seek to have evidence declared inadmissible in court if it was obtained unlawfully. And we will cross-examine witnesses of the prosecution, pinning them down to a single, unchangeable “story.” The preliminary hearing is like a miniature trial to determine if there will be an actual trial. The burden of proof is lower, but what happens here can determine what evidence the jury will see and strongly influence how your case is ultimately resolved.
The preliminary hearing can end in a dismissal, a plea deal, or a trial date. But you only have a right to a preliminary hearing if it is a felony charge. With misdemeanors, you would go straight from the arraignment to pre-trial, after which a trial will take place if the case cannot be resolved without one.
