summons by mail

[becky huber]

What is the name of your state? washington state

my roommates ex-girlfriend has received a summons by register mail,stating she has been charged with upcs. When she called to find out whats this about the county clerk told her all they know is that the state police filed a report. on sept. 28. In the past 6mos was pulled over by sheriff for tail light but that was in july and received no ticket. she is scared to death and don't know how this happened. What should she do? she is to do to court on this next week.

 

[racer72]

What is upcs?

 

[Son of Slam]

What is upcs?

Possession of a controlled substance. Maybe the stuff inside her broken tail light?

 

[cmorris]

Either something happened that she is not telling, someone else has the same name, or there is identity theft. You can't just be mailed a summons, it has to be delivered in person (US Constitution)

 

[JETX]

Either something happened that she is not telling, someone else has the same name, or there is identity theft. You can't just be mailed a summons, it has to be delivered in person (US Constitution)

*** CMorris, you're not correct. A person can be noticed of a criminal summons by mail.

In fact, here is an excerpt from the Des Moines, Washington court:
Criminal Citations (Gold)
"If you receive a gold copy of a criminal citation from a Des Moines police officer or in the mail, your appearance in court is mandatory. You have been charged with a crime. Failure to appear will result in a warrant being issued for your arrest.
Look for an appearance (arraignment) date in the lower left-hand portion of the citation. If no date is written on the citation, the court will summon you in 2-3 weeks. The summons will be mailed to the address on the face of the citation. It is your responsibility to contact the court if the address is incorrect or the summons is not received within 2-3 weeks."
Source: http://www.desmoineswa.gov/dept/court/criminal.html

 

[abezon]

If someone else has the same name, the charging officer should be asked to confirm that he meant to issue a ticket to her, not just to Jane Smith. If someone else pretended to be her, she probably knows them; it's usually a family member. It's also possible that she was charged based on the testimony of a witness, who was mistaken as to the name of the person s/he saw with drugs.

She can get a public defender or hire an attorney. There's a very good chance this can be dismissed if she can convince the prosecutor that she is not the person the officer meant to charge.

She can request a prelim probable cause hearing if she thinks she has a good chance of showing that she was not the person who had drugs. That's something to discuss with her lawyer.

 

[becky huber]

summons she is not the one

well this upset this girl so much she went to one of the state patol in tacoma wa. and was asking whom to talk with reguarding the charges she recieved. As she was speaking with one of the officers there was some others who happen to be there and was listening and said to her i know its not you because i was the one whom pulled them over. so he says he has it on video so, why she was standing there he wrote a report and fax it to the court clerk. He also informed her she my want to check out any credit cards and bank accounts because of ID thief. So needless to say everything is maxed out and bank is overdaft.
so now she really has a mess to clean-up. They say this is happening more often. So everyone needs to check out your bank and credit cards often. It does happens to people everyday. and it is a bitch to get it right again.