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Help With Warrant Issues

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Hurt&Confused

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas
Hello, I just moved back to Texas from Oregon 7 months ago. I have recently found out that I have got 3 warrants for my arrest. 1. contempt of court 2. failure to appear 3. contempt of court punitive. These all stem from a restraining order my girlfriend had put against me last July. And we have talked since then and she wishes she'd never done it and regrets it, but it out of her hands so to speak. My question is what can they do? When I go to get my Texas License, they will see that I have the warrants, will they arrest me and extadite me back to Oregon? I have called them and asked them what I can do to clear this matter up and they just tell me to turn myself in. But I do not want to go back to jail for something so petty. There was never any violence between her and I. But I am bipolar, and the meds they had me on did make me verbally mean. I tried to tell the doctors and they just kept increasing my dosages and it got so bad I eventually put a knife in my chest missing my heart by an 1/8 of an inch and slit my wrist, not to mention over dosed on a ton of pills. I am better now, I am no longer on any of those awful meds and I don't have a bad temper what so ever. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Hurt and Confused.
 


Heather2

Member
Hurt&Confused said:
What is the name of your state? Texas
Hello, I just moved back to Texas from Oregon 7 months ago. I have recently found out that I have got 3 warrants for my arrest. 1. contempt of court 2. failure to appear 3. contempt of court punitive. These all stem from a restraining order my girlfriend had put against me last July. And we have talked since then and she wishes she'd never done it and regrets it, but it out of her hands so to speak. My question is what can they do? When I go to get my Texas License, they will see that I have the warrants, will they arrest me and extadite me back to Oregon? I have called them and asked them what I can do to clear this matter up and they just tell me to turn myself in. But I do not want to go back to jail for something so petty. There was never any violence between her and I. But I am bipolar, and the meds they had me on did make me verbally mean. I tried to tell the doctors and they just kept increasing my dosages and it got so bad I eventually put a knife in my chest missing my heart by an 1/8 of an inch and slit my wrist, not to mention over dosed on a ton of pills. I am better now, I am no longer on any of those awful meds and I don't have a bad temper what so ever. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Hurt and Confused.
What kind of advice were you hoping for? The only way to get this cleared up is to turn yourself in. Either way you will have to go to jail even if you bond out right afterward. My advice would be to get an attorney.

Just out of curiousity what meds did they have you on?
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
Hurt&Confused said:
What is the name of your state? Texas
Hello, I just moved back to Texas from Oregon 7 months ago. I have recently found out that I have got 3 warrants for my arrest. 1. contempt of court 2. failure to appear 3. contempt of court punitive. These all stem from a restraining order my girlfriend had put against me last July. And we have talked since then and she wishes she'd never done it and regrets it, but it out of her hands so to speak. My question is what can they do? When I go to get my Texas License, they will see that I have the warrants, will they arrest me and extadite me back to Oregon? I have called them and asked them what I can do to clear this matter up and they just tell me to turn myself in. But I do not want to go back to jail for something so petty. There was never any violence between her and I. But I am bipolar, and the meds they had me on did make me verbally mean. I tried to tell the doctors and they just kept increasing my dosages and it got so bad I eventually put a knife in my chest missing my heart by an 1/8 of an inch and slit my wrist, not to mention over dosed on a ton of pills. I am better now, I am no longer on any of those awful meds and I don't have a bad temper what so ever. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks Hurt and Confused.

Q: My question is what can they do?

A: If by "they" you mean the government, then they can throw you in jail.



Q: I go to get my Texas License, they will see that I have the warrants, will they arrest me and extadite me back to Oregon?

A: If the warrants are for felonies, you could be extradited to whatever jurisdiction issued the warrants.



I have called them and asked them what I can do to clear this matter up and they just tell me to turn myself in.

Correct...you have only one choice: surrender.
 

outonbail

Senior Member
I do not want to go back to jail for something so petty. There was never any violence between her and I.
I eventually put a knife in my chest missing my heart by an 1/8 of an inch and slit my wrist,
Knives in your chest, barely missing your heart and slitting wrists are not petty and contrary to what you may believe, these are violent acts. Extremely violent acts which can only result in life threatening injuries! Do not present these facts like they are simple, petty, harmless coincidental’s, which were simply a result of your taking the wrong medication.
While you're probably meaning to relay the fact that you never displayed violence towards your girlfriend (no physical violence anyway) and just towards yourself, you still went there. Your loss of self control and resulting violent behavior only demonstrates the very real potential for you to become violent again. What it was, or what it will be that sets you off and into a fit of deadly rage next time, is not the courts concern. How to keep the public safe from you when it happens again, is how they have to approach the situation.
Convincing the courts that this dangerous behavior will not happen again and that you have taken the appropriate action to ensure that it can not happen again, is the only way to approach this situation.

So don't fool yourself into believing that it wasn't your fault or think anyone else is going to see it that way. Because the fact remains, that it was your responsibility to make the doctors aware of the seriousness of the issues you were experiencing while taking whatever medication it was, that had you going off the deep end. If one doctor wouldn't pay any attention, you needed to see another one. You can't just put your behavior off on a doctor who wouldn't listen and shed all responsibility for your actions. If you need help, get it!

As far as your warrants go, you may as well turn yourself in and face the music. Any other decision is simply a matter of postponing the inevitable, as they do not go away. If you have had your license suspended because of these warrants and you continue to drive, you will only be piling on the charges against yourself, which will make it appear that you have not done anything to help yourself deal with your anger problem and/or mental health issues and support the fact that you still have no respect for the law. This is not the impression you want the judge to get when reviewing your case.

If you have done something to improve the way you deal with life's daily difficulties, (change in medication, anger management classes, change in lifestyle, stop the use of illegal drugs/alcohol etc.) then you can present proof of these claims to the court and the judge can consider these developments when deciding on a proper sentencing for your actions.
You can also ask your doctor to appear with you in court and have him/her present their professional evaluation of how and why the effect the drugs you were prescribed at the time of your crime spree may have affected your way of thinking and subsequent actions.
But as you may already be aware, actually getting a doctor to testify to this in court, may be difficult, if not impossible.
So if you plan on going to court on your own and without a doctor to verify your medicinal issues, but still using the "reaction to your medication" route as your avenue of incapability, thinking it somehow explains or excuses the behavior which landed you in court, you should know that this unsuccessful road of defense has seen miles of travel and will most likely only hurt the outcome of your case, as it will appear to a judge that you are not taking responsibility for your actions.

Hence, I strongly recommend that you do not place the blame for your troubles on medication or a doctor, which it appears by your post, to be what you are suggesting. This is a strategy that's sure to fail if you present it to a judge as being a defense to your actions.

You should also avoid having any contact with the person who had the restraining order issued against you. Even if they attempt to contact you, keep your distance. Do not speak to them or write to them or even think about them, as no good will ever come from doing so.
 

Hurt&Confused

Junior Member
Thank You All

I want to first off say thank you for your replies. I am going to turn myself in in 2 weeks. I gave my notice to my employer and my apartment. I do not want or need anything like this over my head. And before this I had never had any dealings with the law other than when I was a paramedic. As far as using the medical aspect as a defense, I had no plan on doing so. Although I now realize that my first post came across as I'm trying to blame someone or something else for my actions, the truth is I KNOW no one is to blame but myself. I was in a very dark place and hated life, no excuse. Would I willingly tell that to the judge? no. I will do whatever my court appointed attorney tells me to do. And I hope I don't have to spend too much time in jail. As far as talking or having any contact with that person, we no longer have any contact what so ever. The only contact I forsee, will be when she comes to my trial. As for the meds I was taking, I was taking 3200mg lithium, 800 mgs wellbutrin and 5mg trazadone.
 

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