Due in court 1,000 miles away

[winfresa]

My son (25+ yrs) was arrested in 2005 for possession (small amt. of pot), pled guilty and was placed on probation. His probation was violated in Oct 2006 and Apr 2006 because he was unable to afford the montly fee they were charging him for drug testing while trying to support a wife and 2 children as a carpenter. Work remained slow, his truck broke down, wife left him, he was evicted and ended up homeless, severely depressed and living on the street. I brought him to Fl. by train this past week but my concern is a court date he has in two weeks in Md. for another VOP for the same reason...money. I cannot afford a round trip there for court, however, my son is trying to get his life straightened out so he doesn't want to get into more trouble for non-appearance. Can he/I write to the court, explain the situation and request that this court proceeding be dropped and also request to have his probation transferred down here?

 

[seniorjudge]

He (not you) may ask the court anything.

Whether the court grants it is another story.

 

[Duranie]

Your son needs to straighten this out. He has a wife and kids to support but still violated his probation.

He can try asking for a continuance but a no show is big trouble and probably means a warrant.

was he given a PD at all?

 

[winfresa]

I believe he had a PD back in 2005. If he asks for a continuance based on the necessity of his move (ie. homelessness) is it possible the court would just drop it? Not to sound flip but a warrant is pretty meaningless since I seriously doubt Md would be too interested in incurring the expense of extraditing someone from over 1,000 miles away over something so minor.

 

[Duranie]

The court just does not drop stuff like this. Your son needs to start taking this stuff more seriously and just because he lives in another state, does not mean the warrant will not be served. Where he lives probably has an active police department, they will serve the warrant.

 

[winfresa]

Trust me, he is taking this very seriously. He tried repeatedly to contact his P.O. while he was homeless, she was never at her desk and he's tried several times since he arrived in Fl. Can the case be transferred down here? I understand that the warrant can be served by our local PD but then what? This is a small rural town. I doubt they'll absorb the expense of transporting him to Md and I really don't think Md would want to come get him for something so minor. What I need to know is if there is a request that he can make to the court in Md which would resolve this without him having to travel back up there because that is financially impossible at this point. Maybe in the future, after he's working, but not now.