Warrant of arrest notice - help

[heyitsme]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I received a wet reckless (conviction date April 30th 2008). For this I had to 1. pay a fine, 2. attend a 12 hour alcohol class and 3. attend a MADD panel. I did all of these things and filed all the proper paperwork showing these things.

I got this warrant of arrest notice in the mail today and it says: "for failure to comply with an order of the court." So I know someone ... up along the way and didn't file something properly, so now I have to deal with this.

I have to appear in court at 8am asap. What is going to happen? I plan on taking all the proof I have to my appearance, but are they going to make me go to jail? It says the bail amount is $5,500. Do I have to pay this even though I did everything right? I'm so confused.

[heyitsme]

Anyone?

Why does it say there is 1 reply...I dont see any replies.

[outonbail]

Originally Posted by heyitsme

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

I received a wet reckless (conviction date April 30th 2008). For this I had to 1. pay a fine, 2. attend a 12 hour alcohol class and 3. attend a MADD panel. I did all of these things and filed all the proper paperwork showing these things.

I got this warrant of arrest notice in the mail today and it says: "for failure to comply with an order of the court." So I know someone ... up along the way and didn't file something properly, so now I have to deal with this.

This isn't the end of the world, so just take a deep breath and relax. Do you have all your records that show you did in fact comply with all the terms of your sentence? If so, you will be fine. If not, then you can start to worry.

I have to appear in court at 8am asap. What is going to happen? I plan on taking all the proof I have to my appearance, but are they going to make me go to jail? It says the bail amount is $5,500. Do I have to pay this even though I did everything right? I'm so confused.

I know that for a while there, some Ca courts were having so many people fail to attend the required alcohol program, that they made the violation a "No Bail" warrant so when anyone with this warrant was stopped and/or had their name ran, the police were required to bring the person to jail on this misdemeanor charge. This is as far as I know, the only no bail warrant that California has for a misdemeanor offense. I don't know if they still do this or how many counties do it, but it was happening in San Diego county about ten years back.

But it is something you do not want to put off because if you get stopped you just may end up being taken in. Depending on what day of the week a person is arrested and the holiday scheduling, you could end up sitting in jail for as long as a week before you get to see a judge. So go there as soon as you possibly can to avoid such a situation.

If you have all the proof you need to show you did everything, then I'm sure the judge will quash the warrant and send you on your way.

Aside from the court costs, did you pay all the program fees? If not, the program will usually hold up sending in the verification of your completion until they are paid in full. Or they will send in a violation for not paying, depending on how they report to the courts.

I also thought the wet reckless program was longer than 12 hours, but I could be wrong. Not all courts offer the wet reckless as an alternative to a DUI, so some may have different requirements than others.

What county/city did this occur in?

[heyitsme]

Thanks for your response. This is in Orange County.

And to answer your question, or thought, the wet reckless program is only 12 hours (6 classes, 2 hours each). I paid everything in full from the first day and I have my receipt showing that.

When I finished my classes, the case manager told me they send over all the appropriate paperwork to the courts showing that I have completed the program. She said it usually takes a couple days for them to get it over. So, I gave it a week and went down to the court to make sure they received notification of my completion. Not to my surprise, nothing was sent over....I was pissed. I waited there while the court liason woman called over to where I took my classes and had the school fax over my completion form. The court lady received the form, marked some stuff down and had me take the paper to another floor to file it away in my file or whatever. I did that, and the woman who filed my completion form told me I was good to go. On my court order of stuff to do it told me once I completed my classes that I had to go back to the alcohol court liason person on July 28th (I'm assuming to finalize my completion). When I went down to take care of all this completion stuff (which was about 3 weeks before July 28th), the lady who told me I was good to go said I did NOT need to come back on the 28th.

I'm thinking maybe the warrant was issued possibly because of that? That someone f'd up and put down that I didnt return on July 28th or something....but then again, that was 5 months ago...it would take them 5 months to get a warrant out?

When I did my MADD panel they (the people at MADD) said we did not have to do ANYTHING and that they would send over all the paperwork to the courts showing that we attended. It could possibly have to do with that...maybe they never did or something. I still have my proof that I attended, though.

I also paid all my court fines and I have my receipt showing my payment and that my case balance is at $0

This is just so frustrating that I have to deal with this because someone f'd up. I did everything right and even double checked to make sure...now I'm having to deal with this and I'm stressing out.