Does Police Reports initiate Municipal Judge's Actions

[GranSuz]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas. How can I get a copy of a Police Report and Arrest Warrant? Can these be viewed online? Does a Summons have to be issued and delivered to someone to appear in court, and how can you get a copy of a summons?

[CavemanLawyer]

Were you actually arrested on this municipal violation? If not there won't be an arrest warrant.

None of the documents you want to see are going to be available online. If there is an arrest warrant it will be in the jacket (little folder) at the municipal court. If the officer wrote an offense report it will probably be kept in electronic format at the police station and he/she will just bring a copy to court for the trial. Depending on the charge against you, it is not at all uncommon for there to be no police report. Many officers just scribble notes on the back of their copy of the citation to refresh their memory if the case goes to trial.

If you want to look at whatever documents there might be then you need to file a motion for discovery with the court seeking these items, and request a hearing on that issue. If the judge orders it produced then a prosecutor with the court will get you copies. Don't be surprised though if you are told that you won't get to see ANYTHING until it is actually your turn to cross examine a witness in trial. That is the only time that you have an absolute right to see the offense report (if it even exists) for a class C offense in Texas.

People are summoned to court by a subpoena issued by that court. If a witness has been subpoenaed for that case then there should be a copy of the subpoena in the jacket for that case. The municipal court may or may not let you look in the jacket to see who the State's witnesses are. You can file a motion for discovery asking for a witness list also, but again good luck. You just don't have the same pretrial rights in a Class C trial that you do in other more serious crimes.

If you need to subpoena witnesses of your own you should be able to do this through the court. There will probably be a fee though.

What are you charged with anyway?

[GranSuz]

Over a year ago, a Police Officer called my Husband at home and asked if he would accept a ticket over the phone for an accident he was witnessed committing on a Restaurant Parking Lot, a few weeks eariler. He said our vehicle pulled a chain link fence, located on the parking lot adjacent, across vehicles parked, causing damage. He told the Officer He had no idea what he was talking about and No, he would not receive a ticket over the phone for something he had not done. The Officer told him he would turn his report in to the city prosecuter and if He didn't hear from them, to forget it. Just in case He heard fron the Prosecuter, we visited the parking lot on a Sunday morning to see what he was possibly talking about, and the fence was about 1 or 2 feet above the Restaurant lot and was partially standing and laying down. It belonged to a closed movie theatre. We backed our vehicle up into several different parking spaces to see if it touched or reached the fence and took pictures. There was no way we could have done this. You would have had to feel or hear some kind of noise. My Husband never heard anything else from it. Never got another phone call, letter, citation or summons....Until last week. An Officer called and told him if He would come in and pay a $600.00 fine for his "Arrest Warrant" from "Oct. 2007", they would offer him Amnesty. He said the Municipal Judge issued it. My Husband told him he must have the wrong person, then found out it was from that Parking Lot ordeal.

[CavemanLawyer]

Well there are two ways to bring a person to court on a charge like this. The first is to give them a citation with their promise to appear. The second is to issue an arrest warrant. Since he did not accept a citation, there is a warrant. If he wants to get any discovery or move the case further he has to turn himself in and then bond out, or they may release him on a personal bond. Then you can start fighting the case. You don't have a right to look at anything until after the arrest warrant is executed.

[GranSuz]

We had never heard of a Police Officer calling on the phone and asking someone if they would accept a ticket. My Husband also told me the last Officer may not have said $600.00 "FINE". He may have just told him to come in and pay $600.00 and he would get amnesty. He had no idea of what he was talking about. After finding out, my Husband explained about the phone call asking about taking a ticket over the phone etc.etc. The Officer asked him to repeat what he said about the phone call. I had written the 1st Officer's name down and put it with my pictures, so My Husband called him and asked him if he remembered the phone call and incident. The Officer said "Vaguely" and was short and curt to my Husband, so he didn't pursue talking with him. He is just wanting to know what he needs to do and be aware of, before going to the Police Station. Could the 1st Officer have issued a ticket without notifying my Husband? Wouldn't my Husband have had to be issued a "Summons" to appear? We just don't understand how he got issued a warrant, and for what? About the Accident?Ticket?Failure to Appear? Why he was not contacted, etc. Will he be arrested at the Police Station to be Bonded out? Who sets the bond? This is all so crazy. Excuse our ignorance, but we've never dealt with anything like this before and have no idea how this is handled by the court. Perhaps he just needs to go ahead and talk to an attorney, so he can find out why a warrant was issued. Just hate to spend the money. The $600.00 would probably be cheaper but He said he's not paying for something He didn't do. (Basically He will be. HUH?)
Thanks Again for your Post.

[CavemanLawyer]

Most class C offenses are filed on the scene with the defendant present. The person is given a citation and they sign it promising to appear. This giving of the citation is legally the equivalent of an arrest. Only if the person then fails to come to court will a warrant issue. With the exception of just a few types of crimes, an officer can always just arrest the person on the spot or release them and file a warrant for their arrest. Giving the citation and giving them a chance to appear is just the easiest way.

When a charge needs to be filed on a person after they have left the scene an officer may call and ask you to accept it through the mail. Again, its just giving you a chance to appear on your own. But since your husband refused, the officer didn't really have any choice but to file the charge and issue a warrant. No they don't have to tell you they are going to do this. The warrant is not for failure to appear it is for whatever offense they are charging him with.

When he is arrested he has to pay the bond to get out. The bond for a class C offense is usually the amount of the fine that they are asking for the charge. You are not necessarily losing this money since it is just bond money. If the charges are ultimately dismissed or he is found not guilty then you get that money back. The idea is that you pay the ticket amount to get out of jail so if he is convicted they already have your money for the fine and they don't have to worry about him not paying later.

So he just needs to turn himself in and have the money ready for the bond. He'll be processed and released and he will be given information about a court date. You can then consider hiring an attorney.

[GranSuz]

Thanks, You explained what the law can do, and what needs to be done to take care of this. The 1st Officer never explained anything other than turning in his report and if we didn't hear from anyone, that it wasn't being pursued and we could forget about it. We assumed that it wasn't pursued, and forgot about it. Just as he said.
My Husband had ask him why was He being accused? He said he was called to the Parking Lot to make a report and a woman had turned our tag number in, as being the vehicle that did this. Is that all it takes to create a problem like this for someone? Anyone can turn a tag number in and accuse anyone of guilt? If we were never contacted, someone failed somewhere, or the Officer didn't know what he was talking about, or **************Something??
Thanks Again At least I have pictures. Glad I kept them.

[CavemanLawyer]

It takes "probable cause" to file a criminal charge. Under Texas law probable cause can be based solely on the information of a single credible witness. Absent a specific reason why the person would not be credible (ex: extensive criminal history, bias or motive to lie, history of false reports) then all it takes for the witness to be deemed credible is that they identify themself. So basically, yes that is all it takes. It takes a whole lot more to prove the case in court however and judging by how little the officer and the court pursued this case, I wouldn't expect them to try much harder once somebody has to sit down and figure out how to prove your husband did this.