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Drug Charges

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J

Julismth

Guest
california
recently a friend of mine was arrested for codes 11377(a) hs & 23152(a)(b) vc...possession of a controled substance and driving under the influence. he passed a field sobriety test. after 5 hours he was let out on or and told to report to a treatment center while awaiting his court date. they have scheduled his treatment program around his job. he works very steady and pays a large amount of child support and back child support. he had a very small amount of meth on him. very small.
its his first offense. his record is completely clean. he is 36 years old.
what is the average sentencing for this?
will he be required to do jailtime if it puts his job therfore his child support payments in jeapordy?
would it be beneficial to get a laywer?
is it possible to get these charges off his record?
 


calatty

Senior Member
He absolutely needs a lawyer. With decent representation, he probably will not do jail time for this first offense.
 
H

HumCo

Guest
I was hit with 11377a (north calif - 1 g of meth - first offense of any kind) in jun01 and finally had the case resolved this week.
my original plan was to try and keep it off my record and play the courts/probation's game by accepting the offer for diversion- bad choice - i quickly found out that a misdomeanor on my record isn't the worst thing that can happen. one of my biggest concerns is maintaining the job i have (high paying jobs are very hard to find up north among the redwood giants) - anything that would jeopordize this is out of the question
the probation dept (18 months of prob) transferred the drug treatment to the county i live in (was arrested in a county south of mine), these yahoo's decided it was in my best interest to have me attend 6 weeks of 1.5 hours twice a week, then 6 months of 1.5 hours 5 times a week, then 6 months of 1.5 hours 2 times a week -with each meeting costing $40 (this comes out to just under 8,000 - add the court cost and it totals just under 9,000). i decided that i wouldn't test the stabilty of my job; so i rejected what probation said i had to do so it was put back before the judge. sad thing is that my prob officer said i had 2 choices: diversion or 90-365 days in jail - the bitch! so i called the da and was given a completely different picture. i was told i had 4 options: prop 36 drug treatment, diversion drug treatment, summary probation & no probation w/ a heavier jail sentence.
so back in court i just asked the judge what the sentence would be if i choose summary probation. his answer was music to my ears: 3 years unsupervised probation with no drug tests unless asked by a police officer on suspicion, 20 days in jail & $100 fine. Obviously the 20 days would also jeopordize my job but after asking i was granted what the da expected i could get - suspended jail time for a swap in a work program which can be done on weekends.
end result is probation twice as long + saving over $8,500 + 2.5 months of weekend work detail - a far cry from 13 months of drug treatment. i believe aside from the drug treatment plans it's hard to avoid jailtime, even on a first misdomeanor offense, but with the option of 'picking up trash' it gives a nice alternative to carrying a jar of k-y jelly while locked up!
depending on the county & judge, some places are more liberal, you should see a variety of judgements for seemingly similar offences.

good luck
HumCo
 

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