Time frame for Motion?

[momprose]

What is the name of your state? Utah. My 14 year old son is representing himself in court Friday. He has filed two motions to suppress & one motion to dismiss. How long do these usually take? Will we know anything before he goes to court on Friday? The motions were filed on Friday 1/14/2005. Thanks in advance for any thoughts here.

 

[Shay-Pari'e]

What is the name of your state? Utah. My 14 year old son is representing himself in court Friday. He has filed two motions to suppress & one motion to dismiss. How long do these usually take? Will we know anything before he goes to court on Friday? The motions were filed on Friday 1/14/2005. Thanks in advance for any thoughts here.

Since he has court on Friday,....No you will not know anything before Friday. The time it will take will fall on the judge.

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Utah. My 14 year old son is representing himself in court Friday. He has filed two motions to suppress & one motion to dismiss. How long do these usually take? Will we know anything before he goes to court on Friday? The motions were filed on Friday 1/14/2005. Thanks in advance for any thoughts here.

You're double posting

 

[stealth2]

I'm trying to figure out what the hell kind of parent allows their 14yo to represent themselves in court.

 

[momprose]

Several reasons: 1: I don’t have $1200 to hire an attorney. 2: We make to much to be considered indigent. 3: I believe my Son is innocent. 4: Why should I have to pay to prove him innocent. 5: I’m naïve, I expected our justice system to be fair. 6: One Attorney told me the D.A. has a 92% conviction rate, for an 8% chance I think my Son has as good of a chance of getting himself off as an Attorney would. Show up, tell the truth! 7: You can’t believe how much we have all learned from all of this. Good or Bad, we are getting an education. 8: I honestly thought my homeowners insurance would cover the Attorney, however, because it is a “Criminal” mater they will not provide an Attorney like they originally said they would. Finding this out a week before trial has left us in a bind. My Son can represent himself, ask for a continuance and then hire an Attorney and / or Hope that his Motion to dismiss will be granted.
If I felt like my Son could do time in detention, I would beg or borrow money for an Attorney. He is looking at paying restitution and community service if they find him guilty. The restitution is less than hiring an Attorney would cost. If the conviction rate is really 92% why pay for an Attorney and restitution if it is inevitable? Plus, He is learning more than he ever would. He is a good kid. In my mind this will make a bigger impression on him as to why choosing the right friends to hang with is so important. He could have lied and taken a plea agreement. He would have paid restitution and this would not have gone on his record. What do we teach our children? That it’s better to lie and take a sure thing? OR, fight for your rights, tell the truth and pray that the justice system works. P.S. I am a Hell of a good Mom!

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Utah. My 14 year old son is representing himself in court Friday. He has filed two motions to suppress & one motion to dismiss. How long do these usually take? Will we know anything before he goes to court on Friday? The motions were filed on Friday 1/14/2005. Thanks in advance for any thoughts here.

What are his motions for?

 

[momprose]

First, He files a Motion to Suppress & Motion to Dismiss. Basically they no longer have the evidence. We have no pictures of the damage they are accusing my son of the Truck was repaired and then traded in for an new truck. Plus his insurance covered everything. I know this because we have the same insurance company and they told me he was paid in full. With no evidence to verify the damage how do we prove it? So the motion to suppress deals with the truck, without a truck there is no reason to move forward, thus the motion to dismiss. The second Motion to suppress deals with the police officer who went to my son’s school, had him taken out of class for an hour and questioned him. My son told him “I didn’t do this, may I go back to class?” the officer didn’t allow him to leave. At that point in time he considered himself in custody, Miranda should apply. But, no rights were read to him. He was not given the opportunity to call us or an Attorney. So, the Motion to Suppress is for the interrogation with this officer. Through discovery, my son read the police report and the summary of the interrogation. He believes the summary is misleading.

 

[stealth2]

What sort of insurance does a 14yo have? That is not held by the parents?

 

[momprose]

stealth2: My 14 year old doesn't have insurance. We, his parents have insurance on our home. He is covered under our policy. Our policy clearly states that "negligent acts of children" are covered. We also have "Claim and Defense Expenses" coverage. In my policy it doesn't say "We won't cover crimial claims" But, the insurances attorney said "They will not pay for an Attorney to represent my son, even though he is being falsely accused because it is a criminal matter." However, if convicted they will pay for restitution. Since the insurance company has already paid the owner (the accuser), they won't pay a second claim. We both have the same insurance company (the accuser and us). It is frustrating going into this blind. If we could go back in time, I probably would have hired an Attorney right from the get go. Everyone kept telling me, it would never make it to court. It will never go that far. Well, it's here! We go to court tomorrow! Then we will know for sure if we are truly stupid parents.

 

[stealth2]

Okay - I misunderstood the he in "his insurance" to mean your son - now I understand you meant the owner of the truck. My bad!

 

[momprose]

We are all winners

I just wanted to give you an update on how our day in Court went. The DA discovered that the victim had been compensated by his insurance company. They offered to file a diversion stating that charges against my Son will be dropped if he will apologize without admitting guilt and if he was willing to pay $100 that the victim had to pay for his insurance deducible. Or, we could go into to court and try our luck. A sure thing in my opinion is better than a chance at a conviction. My Son wrote the letter expression sympathy for the victims loss, reiterating that he did not do the damage he was accused of. So, we all come out winners in my book. The victim is made whole. My son learned an important lessons and both my husband and I have become very cynical as to the Juvenile court system. When the Supreme Court called it a Kanagroo court, they weren't kidding.

 

[rmet4nzkx]

Are you going to make him work for the $100 and also pay the increase in your insurance?

 

[momprose]

Do you think our insurance will go up since they wouldn't provide an attorney because it was a "criminal" matter? They (the insurance company) know my Son was falsely accused. We aren't going to ask the insurance company to pay the $100 either. The claim was filed by our neighbor, the victim, & his insurance just happens to be the same as our insurance company. We haven't filed any other claims with our insurance company. My Son has already offered to work off the $100. What would be really nice, is to find out who really damaged the truck because I'm sure it is the same person who broke my laundry room window, the week after the truck was damaged (my son was out of town that week, it wasn't him). Someone is getting away with it and my Son is willing to work it off. But, like I said before, a cheap lesson.