Criminal Charges / Crimes

Although I can’t say how things are specifically handled in your county, often times, after an arrest, the person gets “arraigned,” which is where the judge formally reads the charges. Then bail is set (and either the person pays bail or gets back to jail if s/he can’t pay bail) or the person is released without bail and told to be back in court on a certain day. In some states, instead of setting a bail amount, the judge can decide whether it is safe for the defendant to be released back into the community pending trial. If the defendant is released, then s/he may have to follow certain conditions (such as stay away from the victim and verify his/her address with a pre-trial officer). If the judge finds that it is not safe for the defendant to remain in the community, then the judge may require the defendant to remain in jail until the trial date.

Then, generally, the prosecutor’s office takes over the case to begin to build a case against the person and will often reach out to the victim to speak to him/her. (Or, alternatively, the prosecutor may decide to drop the case if s/he believes that the case is too weak to proceed). In many states, the victim actually has to sign a supporting affidavit written by the prosecutor’s office within a certain amount of time for the case to go forward.

Therefore, if the victim of a crime is not contacted soon after the arrest, s/he may decide to contact the local district attorney’s office directly to ask for an update on the case and to ask if there is anything that s/he needs to sign or do to move the case along. Many DA’s offices have a victim/witness coordinator or a similarly-named office that handles contact with the victims. Or in some counties, the police may be the ones to reach out to the victim as the detective who is assigned to investigate the case continues with his/her investigation.

So, a few things that perhaps you may be able to clarify with the prosecutor’s office are the following:

1) What were the formal charges brought against the defendant at the arraignment?

2) If the defendant was arrested, was the defendant already released? Was there an amount set for bail? If so, how much was the amount of the bail? (The amount often speaks to the seriousness of the charges and any history of not appearing in court)

3) Was a protection order issued against the defendant in your favor? If so, you would want to ask for a copy of the order so you can see the specific terms in the order.

Another way to try to figure out what is going on in your case could be to call the police department and to ask to speak to the detective who is assigned to your case.

A few things that you may be able to clarify with the police detective are:

1) What stage is the investigation at? For example, have they spoken with witnesses, have they reviewed the footage from any surveillance cameras near the crime scene that may have captured the attack (if the attack was outside)?

2) Is there anything that you can do to help in the investigation? For example, can you help to get your medical records from the hospital after the attack (if there were any)?

If you call the prosecutor’s office, often they will first connect you with a victim/witness coordinator or advocate. Hopefully the victim advocate can tell you what the process is and what is needed from you.

If you feel that the police or prosecutor are not responding to you as you deserve, you may want to try to connect with a local legal services lawyer [LINK] to ask for help in advocating with the police or prosecutor.

[GOOGLE VICTIMS BILL OF RIGHTS + THE STATE AND IF YOU FIND ONE, ADD: Also, it may help you to know that STATE law has a crime victims’ bill of rights. You can read about what rights you have as a victim. [HYPERLINK]