Change of charges between bond hearing and pre-trial

[andrewmanr]

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

Someone I know has been accused of possessing methamphetamine. Arrested and taken to the bond hearing the next day the court presented the charges which included

1)possession of a deadly weapon (switch blade)
2)driving under restraint
3)providing false information
4)possession of 2.6 grams of methamphetamine

The next day, at pre-trial services, the official documents (notarized) were given to this person in duplicate. One copy intended for the individual, the other for their defendant.
the charges outlined on this document were

1)driving under restraint
2)displaying invalid tags
3)driving without insurance
4)possession of 0.01 grams of methamphetamine

Questions:
How can the charges used to set bail change so drastically from the ones given officially the next day?
How can the possessed narcotic weight be so drastically different?
Is 0.01g enough to test and be statistically accurate? what are the tolerances for forensic scales (generally)?
If a combination of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and a third test I have never heard of (I am a statistician and engineer) were used for substance verification, how can the sample amount be enough with respect to quantity to use 3 separate methods?
What advice would you give to a person in this situation? (A lawyer has been contacted, but the preliminary meeting has not yet occurred)

Thank you for your time and advice. If any additional information is needed, please do not hesitate to ask. I will provide all I know to the best of my ability.
Andrew

 

[FlyingRon]

Most likely the difference between the police and whatever ADA might have had the "duty" and the real prosecutor actually looking at the evidence.

The amounts of meth on the charging docs aren't likely to be the actual amounts in evidence, these are often threshold amounts for the various charge levels.
Further, to arrest someone doesn't need an accurate measurement, they may not have weighed the sample at all but "eyeballed" it.
Gas Chrom samples are tiny. We're talking microliters (like what could be held in the needle part of a syringe).

The best bet is to shutup and listen to the attorney. The first thing the attorney is likely to do is get the particulars on the charges (actual amounts). If we're
really down at the 0.01g level, he's going to probably claim that residue has been held not to be the presence of a substance and just because you can
detect drug had been there, it's not now.

What "individual" are you talking about other than the defendant.

 

[andrewmanr]

Most likely the difference between the police and whatever ADA might have had the "duty" and the real prosecutor actually looking at the evidence.

The amounts of meth on the charging docs aren't likely to be the actual amounts in evidence, these are often threshold amounts for the various charge levels.
Further, to arrest someone doesn't need an accurate measurement, they may not have weighed the sample at all but "eyeballed" it.
Gas Chrom samples are tiny. We're talking microliters (like what could be held in the needle part of a syringe).

The best bet is to shutup and listen to the attorney. The first thing the attorney is likely to do is get the particulars on the charges (actual amounts). If we're
really down at the 0.01g level, he's going to probably claim that residue has been held not to be the presence of a substance and just because you can
detect drug had been there, it's not now.

What "individual" are you talking about other than the defendant.

Thank you for the reply FlyingRon. When I had typed defendant, I was a bit tired and instead meant attorney. The paperwork said that the actual weight of the jewelers bag with residue was 0.26g. It then went on to say that the average weight of such a plastic bag is 0.25g, thus the weight of the contents is 0.01g by subtraction. This was the "findings" of the county run crime lab.