You know how unpleasant an arrest is if it has happened to you or witnessed it happening to someone else. If you are a crime suspect, the police will likely catch you off guard when they knock on your door with a warrant. Most arrestees are caught by surprise because they were unaware of an active arrest or bench warrant against them.
No law enforcement officer will notify you that a judge has issued an arrest warrant for your arrest. You must inquire about the warrant and take the necessary measures to prevent an embarrassing arrest.
However, how do you determine whether you have an active warrant against you?
You must partner with a competent criminal attorney to educate you and walk you through the process.
Legal Definition of a Warrant
As the name suggests, an arrest warrant is an official document issued by a presiding judge to the police, permitting them to arrest a suspect named in the document. Judges issue warrants for several reasons. The primary one is if you or someone titled in the formal authorization is suspected of engaging in a criminal act.
Concerning the arrest reasons, the formal document will outline the strict procedures the law enforcers must abide by while conducting the arrest, and the bail figure you, the arrestee, will part with after the arrest to exit jail pending trial.
California has two primary forms of warrants: arrest warrants and bench warrants. Arrest warrants are issued when you are suspected of a crime. In contrast, bench warrants are issued for contempt of court, including failure to appear as scheduled, refusal to pay court financial fines, or violation of court instructions.
Authorities will not inform you of a pending warrant. Typically, you will be unaware of the warrant until the arrest happens, which can be embarrassing. Therefore, when you suspect an active warrant is out there for your arrest, you must speak to your attorney for guidance and to prevent the matter from escalating.
Before delving into how to tell if there is an active warrant for arrest, discussing the various forms of warrants in detail is critical.
Arrest Warrants
A judge issues a warrant of arrest when authorities have compelling evidence that you are engaging in criminal activity. When the judge grants the police this formal document, it marks the commencement of your case. The document authorizes police to arrest and detain you for a suspected crime committed without the presence of police officers.
A judge or magistrate issues this official document if there is solid proof presented by the prosecutor or police of suspected criminal activity by an individual or after a grand jury accusation or indictment. A valid document must have:
- The suspect's name.
- The alleged criminal violation.
- Warrant issuance time.
- The location where the warrant was issued.
- Title and sign of the issued magistrate or judge.
- Name of the court where the formal document was issued.
After the issuance of the official document, there will be no time restriction on when to execute it if it is for a felony crime. When the crime is a misdemeanor, police should execute the warrant between 6 AM and 10 PM unless the arrest happens in public, the presiding judge instructs otherwise, or you are already in custody.
The warrant remains active until you are apprehended and detained or the judge quashes it after discovering exonerating proof. Other warrants will expire if the statute of limitations lapses before your arrest.
You must know that the law requires the police to have a valid warrant before making an arrest. Besides, you, the suspect, can request to examine the warrant to establish its validity if law enforcement visits you for an arrest.
For the enforcers to obtain the warrant, they must present an affidavit before the judge. The document is delivered under oath and comprises sufficient and factual details indicating that the party mentioned in the arrest authorization committed a crime.
An affidavit is a written declaration submitted to the court with truthful information that the party making the allegations, in this case, the police, insists the details are accurate. The document also contains the accuser's signature and statement showing they are ready for prosecution if the court discovers the allegations are false.
If the affidavit details are not compelling to the judge, the court will not issue the warrant. Also, if there are no witnesses to the crime alleged in the affidavit, the judge declines to grant the warrant.
Bench Warrants
Otherwise called body attachment, judges issue bench warrants when you are in contempt of court. A judge issues this warrant in the following situations:
- When you skip scheduled court hearings or an evolution or progress report proceeding,
- When you fail to pay imposed financial fines.
- When you disregard court orders.
- When you refuse to pay for a traffic ticket or citation.
- Failure to pay child support.
- Refusal to show up in court on a summons.
- Probation breach.
It is worth understanding that the officers should not utilize excessive force or lethal weapons when executing an arrest or bench warrant unless circumstances force them to do so. Besides, you must know that bench warrants have no expiration duration. They stay active until a judge recalls them or you present yourself in court. Bench warrants remain outstanding indefinitely despite the duration lapsed since their issuance or your current location.
Failure to Appear (FTA) Warrant
A common form of bench warrant judges issue is the FTA warrant. If your skipping of court hearings was deliberate or you do not have any valid reason for not showing up, you risk criminal counts and the withdrawal of your driving privileges. Willful or intentional FTA is the refusal to appear before a judge within two weeks of the planned court hearing.
A breach of a jotted promise to be present in court is a misdemeanor. When the prosecutor proves all the elements of the offense, you risk spending at most half a year behind bars. When you obtain a pretrial discharge from custody for a misdemeanor offense but fail to show up for trial, the offense is a misdemeanor that attracts at most six months of jail incarceration. However, when the baseline offense is a felony, FTA can attract either misdemeanor counts that attract twelve months of imprisonment or a felony count punishable by no more than 36 months.
Refusal to Pay for Warrants
Another type of bench warrant is the refusal to pay for warrants after failing to pay court financial fines within the stipulated duration. Intentional or willful refusal to pay is a misdemeanor or infraction contingent on the case's facts. The offense attracts $300 in civil valuations, driving privilege suspension for thirty days, and probation.
Search Warrants
Search warrants do not authorize police to make arrests. Instead, they permit the authorities to search the person, car, residence, business premises, or any specified area in the warrant alleging illegal activity or substances. These warrants state the places and properties subject to the search. Besides, they mention the factual foundation for the warrant and give a timeframe within which authorities should execute the search.
Typically, these are executed immediately and are only valid for ten days. The time for execution is between 7 AM and 10 PM unless the judge instructs otherwise.
The presiding judge reissues it if probable cause exists to search a person or property and the warrant has lapsed.
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Search Warrant Grounds
Judges issue search warrants for several reasons, including:
- The property in question, like merchandise in a store, was stolen.
- The property in question was used in the commission of a crime.
- The item being searched is proof of a crime.
The police must present an affidavit with probable cause to the judge to convince them to issue a search warrant. Therefore, the warrant will be invalid and unenforceable if the affidavit presented to the judge is not hinged on probable cause or if the warrant does not explicitly describe the location of the property to be searched.
Even when a warrant is valid on the face, police can sometimes contravene the law when they seize property not mentioned in the official document authorizing the search. When police disregard a valid search warrant and gather evidence to charge you with a crime, your defense attorney can file a motion to suppress evidence in court if the proof was obtained illegally or outside the stipulations of the warrant.
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Search Warrant Exceptions
Even though proof obtained outside the search warrant is often inadmissible in court, exceptions exist when the court admits such evidence. These exceptions are:
- The officers searching were acting in good faith and reasonably believed the warrant was valid, even if judicial mistakes prevented its issuance.
- There are exigent circumstances like police avoiding the destruction of proof or escape of the suspect.
- The proof is in plain view of law enforcement.
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No-Knock Search Warrant
Law enforcement can enter your property without ringing the doorbell, announcing themselves, or knocking when the judge issues them a no-knock search warrant. The judge issues this form of warrant if they believe police revealing themselves would enable the occupants or suspects on the property to flee, destroy evidence, arm themselves, or endanger the lives of others.
Ways to Check if you have an Outstanding Arrest Warrant
Police execute arrest warrants without warning, which can be embarrassing, especially if the arrest happens in the presence of your coworkers or family. An outstanding warrant for your arrest allows officers to arrest you at any moment without allowing you to explain the situation to your loved ones. So, learning about an active warrant before the officers see you is vital. Doing so gives you time to explain your situation to the family to avoid humiliation and organize your defense.
The common ways you can check out an active warrant against you are:
Look Up Your Name in the Relevant County Sheriff's Superior Court's Website
The internet has simplified the process of obtaining information. You can run a search from the comfort of your living room. Therefore, if you have engaged in any criminal activity like domestic violence and believe the victim reported the matter to the authorities, you should check if there is a pending arrest warrant against you. Also, if someone witnessed you commit a crime and can identify you, then you should suspect there is an outstanding warrant for your arrest.
When the court has issued law enforcement with an arrest warrant, you should find the information on the website of the relevant court that issued the warrant or the sheriff's department in the area where the crime happened. Visit these sites to find out whether there is an arrest document in your name. Learning about the warrant early helps you prepare adequately, including enlisting the services of a defense attorney.
How do you search?
Type your name on California arrests and click search. On the other hand, you can run the search on the Superior Court's site by searching for arrest warrants. After, you should type your official name, birth date, and driver's license number for accurate details.
Run a Criminal Background Check
Running a background check on your criminal record is also a way of knowing if you have an active warrant. Here, you will find more information than just an outstanding arrest warrant. All the details about your school, attendance date, prior convictions, negative information on your credit statement, criminal records, and pending arrest warrants will be shown here.
The familiar parties that run background reviews are potential employers and property managers. However, you can do background checks on yourself. If you have little information on how to do it, you can appoint someone else to do it for you.
From the outcome of the search, you can tell if there is an outstanding warrant. You can also find it if you are on the wanted list of law enforcement or a crime suspect.
You can find this information online because once the judge grants the warrant, the clerk enters the details on the court's website, meaning all police and law enforcers have access to the details and can execute the arrest if they spot you.
Call the Local Police Department or the Federal Court
If you want to answer questions from the magistrate or police, you can call them to inquire about an arrest warrant. However, if you are cynical about it, have a third-party contact or visit the offices for the details.
When you call any of these offices, they will ask for your official name and age. They will then scan the details in the national database and give you the necessary information.
Call Your Criminal Defense Attorney
If you do not want to find out about the warrant yourself, you can enlist an attorney to do it for you. Registered criminal defense attorneys have access to databases, some of which are unavailable to the general public. Therefore, you will find accurate information about an impending arrest by hiring an attorney.
Additionally, an attorney will explain your situation and the process you should expect if there is an outstanding warrant.
Action to Take if there is an Outstanding Arrest Warrant
Many crime suspects go to great lengths to avoid arrests, including skipping town. After all, the arrest record will show up in your history and negatively affect many areas of your life. Nevertheless, running away escalates the issue because you become a deserter, and it becomes obvious you are guilty of the alleged crime. Therefore, do not be tempted to run. Stay calm and contact a criminal defense attorney for guidance.
Your legal representative will establish the reason for the warrant and the severity of the counts and then decide the way forward. Your attorney should inquire about law enforcement's proof and corroborate that the warrant is yours. You could be wrong to think that a warrant for an arrest is yours when it is not. Therefore, an attorney should do their homework on the warrant and learn everything about it. Please do not contact the court or police without confirming it is your warrant.
After your attorney confirms that an arrest warrant is yours, they will establish the charge you face. If the warrant is not for the crime you committed, the attorney will present you in court to clear your name. That way, you will not spend time behind bars. Nevertheless, when the charges against you are accurate, the attorney will inquire about the bail set for the warrant and post it to obtain a pretrial release.
Conversely, if an outstanding bench warrant is against you, your attorney must present you before a judge to quash it. The defense lawyer can appear for you if you skipped scheduled hearings or refused to make payment linked to a misdemeanor crime. The move to appear on your behalf prevents the judge from detaining you when you appear in person.
If you have an active warrant, bench, or arrest, lay low and let your attorney have it recalled or quashed. Have the attorney handle the warrant soon to avoid further implications.
Find a Competent Criminal Attorney Near Me
If you have engaged in a criminal violation and suspect a warrant is out for your arrest, confirm if the warrant exists to avoid an unpleasant arrest. Luckily, you can easily find the information from anywhere today. However, hiring an attorney for the work is best to gather accurate information about the warrant. At Leah Legal, we can establish if there is an outstanding warrant and defend you in the trial. Call us at 818-484-1100 to schedule a meeting in Van Nuys, CA.