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Mess of Underage drinking charges & supposed missed court date

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HurtinBadly

Junior Member
I am in Rutherford County (Murfreesboro, Tennessee). I'm a 20 year old student at MTSU, and have recently got my second underage alcohol comsumption charge. That's not the major issue here, the following is:

I had court back in September '05 for my first drinking underage charge (and my first charge ever, in this county). When I was in court that morning, waiting for the judge to call my name, I see the police officer who gave me the charge talking to another officer and pointing at me. The other officer then walks over to me and handcuffs me, saying there is a warrant out for my arrest. The other officer (the one who gave me the underage consumption charge) tells me that he just served a warrant on me for a felony tampering with evidence charge (more on this later). So I go in front of the judge for the underage charge, and he gives me a retirement (" 11/29 ") and says if I do community service and attend AA meetings, then the charge will go away after 11mo. & 29 days. He also set me a court date for Dec. 5, 2005, as a "check in" date to see how I was coming along. After seeing the judge I got taken to the sheriff's dept. and had to post $3000 bail for the tampering with evidence charge.

Now, THIS is what I am extremely angered about. When the cop came to my dorm room and caught my friends and I drinking, he said something about seeing marijuana seeds/stems on my desk and we denied any use of marijuana. He steps outside the room for a minute to speak with one of my friends and my roommate and I are left alone in my room. The officer comes back in my room, and sees some seeds/stems in my trashcan. He thought I took the seeds/stems and put them in the trash, as a way of trying to hide it from him. He mentioned something about how he could give me a tampering with evidence charge if he wanted to, but never did at that time. He waited until I was in COURT for the underage charge to do it! I never badmouthed the officer, and I DEFINITELY did NOT touch any "evidence." There were seeds and stems on my desk AND in the trashcan, and none had been moved since the officer arrived.

In November, I went to court for the tampering with evidence charge with a public defender (after going to the initial court date for it and getting a bad settlement offer from the DA). Now, I was supposed to be on probation already for the drinking charge from October, but I had been out of town and busy with exams and such so I had not started probation yet. The agreement that the PD reached with the DA was (from what I specifically remember the pub def telling me): The tampering w/ evidence charge will be arbitrarily reduced to a misdemeanor vandalism charge and I will be on probation for a 11mo/29days , and I pay $500 fine and do some more comm. service. I told the PD about how I was supposed to already be on probation (but hadn't actually started it yet), and he went back to talk to the DA and told me that I would now have the drinking and vandalism charges merged together on ONE probation. This time, I was told I would not have to come back to court until the 11/29 was up.

So, obviously I didn't go to my Dec. 5th court date because it was my understanding that I had a whole new probation with the 2 charges, and that I was checking in a year later. Since I hadn't started probation yet, and just got the 2 charges merged onto one probation, the old Dec. 5th court date did not even cross my mind. There was also no mention of this in court--the judge simply said I come back in a year.

Now, my probation officer says that the case is currently put down as two separate charges with basically two separate (overlapping) probations. When I went in for the first time, she told me to call the court clerks office to get my next court date. When I called the clerk, she said I had a "capias" out for my arrest with a $5000 bond because I missed my Dec. 5th court date. I explained my situation to the clerk, about how the Pub Def. told me I was supposed to have the 2 charges merged onto one new probation and that the Dec. 5th court date was from the old probation that I was supposed to have started back in October but didn't because of personal issues (which WERE excused by the court/probation office). The clerk then told me that she needed something in writing from the pub. def. about my case, and then I might be able to get the capias taken away by bringing that written proof in. My P.O. also said that it shows I plead GUILTY to the vandalism charge, which was not what the Pub Def. told me, and I did not want to do that (she mentioned something about me being able to ask that my case be brought before the judge again and changed?)

I called the pub def. and he said he cannot really help me because he does not remember exactly what happened in court that day since he handles so many cases every day, and that he does not have much in his notes about my case.

Now, I have court Tuesday April 3rd for an underage consumption charge that I caught a couple weeks ago. I was NOT EVEN DRINKING, and there is no proof that I was!

*HERE IS MY MAIN CONCERN*
I am worried because I know that something needs to be done about the capias before I go to court on Tuesday, or I will be arrested right then. I don't want to turn myself in and pay a bondsman because I wasn't even supposed to have that court date according to what the public defender had told me. I doubt that I alone am enough to get the clerk to reverse the capias, but it would hurt me very much to have to go turn myself in AND go to court for the charge of missing a court date (don't know what the real term is). It would violate my probation for sure, which means jail time that I cannot afford because I'm a student. If I can get rid of the capias, I think I should be ok because I believe that with a lawyer I can beat the new underage drinking charge. My lawyer said he wants to get a continuance on the case so he can better prepare an argument against it. However, my lawyer himself recommended that I turn myself in because he said it's very hard to get the capias taken away once it's there.

Thanks to anyone who reads this, and to anyone who replies. Much appreciated!
 


Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Listen to your lawyer and don't be surprised if you end up being violated anyway and going to jail. Oh and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Sounds like you need severe rehab.
 

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