Over 10 years ago I was accused of and plead guilty to theft by conversion charges.
I am a contractor and had a couple of jobs that had gooten upside down. I did finish the jobs however the clients were afraid I would not get the remaining bills paid so they filed legal charges.
I hired an attorney who got it put off and put off. However, I never spoke to the attorney again about what was going on.
If I might mention here that I had NEVER been in trouble of any kind with the law until this incident. I had no idea how the judicial system worked. Had I known then what I know now I would have fired that attorney and got another one.
The attorney called one day and said I needed to be at his office that afternoon.
I went and he said that he had received a plea offer from th D.A. and it was the best deal I could hope for.
Basicaly, I was to plead guilty and take a 10 year sentence with time served and have 10 years probation plus restitution and 380 hrs. of community service.
I took this deal on the advice of my attorney. I never shoukld have taken this advice.
I was never told of or offered first offender status or told anything really.
Forward to now. On July 7,2010 I was arrested at a roadside check on a violation of probation warrant from 2002.
I was told at the jail that it was for failure to pay restitution and that I would have to speak to someone from the probation office.
I told them "Great, I had paid the restitution and folloed my requirements to the letter and could get this taken care of as soon as I spoke to someone from the probation office".
That never happened. I filled a request form out 2 times a day askinf to speak to a probation officer(The man who had been my P.O. back then is retired).
I was in jail until Friday afternoon July 9,2010 at approx. 5:30 p.m.
They came and got me that afternoon and said I was free to go. The warrant had been a mistake and it had been recalled and I owed no money on restitution.
No one ever came from the probation office to speak to me.
I asked how then was I getting out. The lady deputy sheriff told me that she had read my request forms when she came on duty that afternoon and had called the probation office and had been told to let me go.
The probation office Never even called when they found it was a mistake! If the deputy had not called I would have sat in jail at least over the weekend!
How can this happen? They should have a system in place to find out about warrants especially 8 year old ones, before they send them to the system.
How about the cost of getting my car back($150.00)?
I also need to know if I could exspunge this from my record in the state of Georgia?
I would appreciate any feed back you may have.
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I am a contractor and had a couple of jobs that had gooten upside down. I did finish the jobs however the clients were afraid I would not get the remaining bills paid so they filed legal charges.
I hired an attorney who got it put off and put off. However, I never spoke to the attorney again about what was going on.
If I might mention here that I had NEVER been in trouble of any kind with the law until this incident. I had no idea how the judicial system worked. Had I known then what I know now I would have fired that attorney and got another one.
The attorney called one day and said I needed to be at his office that afternoon.
I went and he said that he had received a plea offer from th D.A. and it was the best deal I could hope for.
Basicaly, I was to plead guilty and take a 10 year sentence with time served and have 10 years probation plus restitution and 380 hrs. of community service.
I took this deal on the advice of my attorney. I never shoukld have taken this advice.
I was never told of or offered first offender status or told anything really.
Forward to now. On July 7,2010 I was arrested at a roadside check on a violation of probation warrant from 2002.
I was told at the jail that it was for failure to pay restitution and that I would have to speak to someone from the probation office.
I told them "Great, I had paid the restitution and folloed my requirements to the letter and could get this taken care of as soon as I spoke to someone from the probation office".
That never happened. I filled a request form out 2 times a day askinf to speak to a probation officer(The man who had been my P.O. back then is retired).
I was in jail until Friday afternoon July 9,2010 at approx. 5:30 p.m.
They came and got me that afternoon and said I was free to go. The warrant had been a mistake and it had been recalled and I owed no money on restitution.
No one ever came from the probation office to speak to me.
I asked how then was I getting out. The lady deputy sheriff told me that she had read my request forms when she came on duty that afternoon and had called the probation office and had been told to let me go.
The probation office Never even called when they found it was a mistake! If the deputy had not called I would have sat in jail at least over the weekend!
How can this happen? They should have a system in place to find out about warrants especially 8 year old ones, before they send them to the system.
How about the cost of getting my car back($150.00)?
I also need to know if I could exspunge this from my record in the state of Georgia?
I would appreciate any feed back you may have.
Charles
Monday, July 19, 2010