My boyfriend and I wondered on to a rancher's land one day to target shoot. The land was not marked, it was out in the country, and there was no sign and a broken down fence.
Long story short, we were contacted by the Warden's the next morning because the rancher got our license plate. They made us fill out a statement and we went on our way. I contacted them a couple of weeks later and they told us they were certain they convinced the land owner to drop the charges. And that was the end of it. So we thought..
7 months later my boyfriend got pulled over for a warning and the officer proceeded to tell him he had a warrant out for his arrest. Turns out we both do. We went up to the county attorney's office, they said we both have to pay a $400 fine and 6 months probation. And it's a class b misdemeanor charge. What exactly does a class b misdemeanor mean for us? This is both of our first time criminal trespass offenses.
***UPDATE***
Now I go home and contact a local Attorney. He tells me his flat rate for accepting a case is 1500 per case. I then call the courthouse for the case number, and call him back. He then offers to call the court for me to get some basic info about the charges and calls me back with "I feel very confident that with my relationship with the County Attorney, I can get you Deferred Adjudication..60 days. Charges dropped after completion...no record." He told me his flat rate was 1500...per case...kind of high for what seems to be a few hours of pressing palms, slapping backs and paper pushing.
1)Is is a good idea to go forward with this with no guarantee of Deferred?
2)Why is it that an Attorney can get this far in 10 minutes but when I asked the County Attorney I get nothing? Is the legal profession a self perpetuating industry? ie Lawyers only doing favors for other Lawyers so that they can get paid by some poor sap with no choice. Sorry for being harsh, I support the profession
3) Is there a better cheaper way of getting the same result?
4) What are the long term repercussions of having a Class B? on your record? Job applications, credit history etc.?
Long story short, we were contacted by the Warden's the next morning because the rancher got our license plate. They made us fill out a statement and we went on our way. I contacted them a couple of weeks later and they told us they were certain they convinced the land owner to drop the charges. And that was the end of it. So we thought..
7 months later my boyfriend got pulled over for a warning and the officer proceeded to tell him he had a warrant out for his arrest. Turns out we both do. We went up to the county attorney's office, they said we both have to pay a $400 fine and 6 months probation. And it's a class b misdemeanor charge. What exactly does a class b misdemeanor mean for us? This is both of our first time criminal trespass offenses.
***UPDATE***
Now I go home and contact a local Attorney. He tells me his flat rate for accepting a case is 1500 per case. I then call the courthouse for the case number, and call him back. He then offers to call the court for me to get some basic info about the charges and calls me back with "I feel very confident that with my relationship with the County Attorney, I can get you Deferred Adjudication..60 days. Charges dropped after completion...no record." He told me his flat rate was 1500...per case...kind of high for what seems to be a few hours of pressing palms, slapping backs and paper pushing.
1)Is is a good idea to go forward with this with no guarantee of Deferred?
2)Why is it that an Attorney can get this far in 10 minutes but when I asked the County Attorney I get nothing? Is the legal profession a self perpetuating industry? ie Lawyers only doing favors for other Lawyers so that they can get paid by some poor sap with no choice. Sorry for being harsh, I support the profession
3) Is there a better cheaper way of getting the same result?
4) What are the long term repercussions of having a Class B? on your record? Job applications, credit history etc.?
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