Illinois-residence Missouri-charges filled
We (wife and I) have been accused of felony fraud by my brother in law (BIL). My mother in law (MIL) had a Transfer on Death (TOD) beneficiary form filled out on a Missouri registered motor vehicle titled in her name solely in which he was the TOD beneficiary. The vehicle was given to us under her free will while she was alive on March 21st 2007 and re-titled to our state of residence (Illinois). The transaction was witnessed and processed by an IL Notary who was performing other services for my MIL at the same time. Due to a falling out where he threatened our families we did not want to contact him in any way for this transaction so prior to us visiting the licensing agent I looked up and found in the Missouri revised statutes under RSMo 301.681 par. 4 that this was a perfectly legal way of her to dispose of the vehicle while she was alive and the TOD beneficiary has no rights until she is deceased. She passed away on April 15th 2007 (after the sale) and he (BIL) is now under the assumption we forged his name to re-title the vehicle to our names and has filled felony fraud charges on us out of West Plains Mo. to get possession of the vehicle. We would like to know what we need to do to defend ourselves and get this taken care of.
My question is: Can I simply contact someone (and whom?) within the circuit court (37th district) where the charges were filled and explain to them the RSMo statute and see if the charges can be dropped or does this sort of thing have to go to trial or be worked through a criminal defense lawyer hired by me?
We (wife and I) have been accused of felony fraud by my brother in law (BIL). My mother in law (MIL) had a Transfer on Death (TOD) beneficiary form filled out on a Missouri registered motor vehicle titled in her name solely in which he was the TOD beneficiary. The vehicle was given to us under her free will while she was alive on March 21st 2007 and re-titled to our state of residence (Illinois). The transaction was witnessed and processed by an IL Notary who was performing other services for my MIL at the same time. Due to a falling out where he threatened our families we did not want to contact him in any way for this transaction so prior to us visiting the licensing agent I looked up and found in the Missouri revised statutes under RSMo 301.681 par. 4 that this was a perfectly legal way of her to dispose of the vehicle while she was alive and the TOD beneficiary has no rights until she is deceased. She passed away on April 15th 2007 (after the sale) and he (BIL) is now under the assumption we forged his name to re-title the vehicle to our names and has filled felony fraud charges on us out of West Plains Mo. to get possession of the vehicle. We would like to know what we need to do to defend ourselves and get this taken care of.
My question is: Can I simply contact someone (and whom?) within the circuit court (37th district) where the charges were filled and explain to them the RSMo statute and see if the charges can be dropped or does this sort of thing have to go to trial or be worked through a criminal defense lawyer hired by me?