Wrong place, long time

Client was in an apartment 15 years ago that got raided by cops who were looking for somebody (not the client) who was manufacturing meth and LSD. (LSD! That's new; it's always meth aroud here.) The cops arrested somebody else in the apartment but did not cite or arrest this client.

Six months later, the client moved someplace else in the state. Eight months later (after she'd already moved away), the D.A. filed drug charges against the client. (The client, of course, had nothing to do with owning, taking, or selling drugs; she was just in the apartment that had been raided.) Nobody ever bothered to tell this woman that there were these charges against her. She never received paperwork or even a phone call from the Court or District Attorney's office. Then, because she failed to appear in court on the charges she knew nothing about, the court issued a warrant for her arrest. (This is standard procedure when defendants don't appear when the court expects them to.)

Two years later, the client moved back to the county we're in, and she's lived here ever since. During the past 15 years, nobody did anything to contact this client and tell her there were not just charges against her, but a warrant for her arrest.

She's been pulled over for traffic tickets, had background checks for jobs - nothing ever came up suggesting that there were these lingering charges from back in 1990. She was charged with a misdemeanor in 2000 (the charges were dismissed), so she was even back in the system and nobody bothered to haul her in on this outstanding arrest warrant.

This past January, a cop pulled her over in a grocery store parking lot because she didn't use her turn signal. This time, he ran her license and it showed an arrest warrant was out for this woman. She had no idea what it was for. They arrested her on the spot, and she stayed in jail for a day until she could scare up enough money from the bail bondsman to be released pending trial. Can you imagine being pulled over for not using your turn signal and ending up in jail?

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a speedy trial in the 6th Amendment. The District Attorney's office is preparing to prosecute this woman after fifteen years. Fifteen years = not speedy.

So I wrote a motion to dismiss the charges against the client based on the violation of her right to a speedy trial. If ever a person's right to a speedy trial were violated, it was here. Fifteen years, people! Still, instead of just going along with the motion, the D.A. insists on wasting everybody's time arguing that there is nothing wrong with this.

So I have to spend all this time preparing to make oral argument at court. I have to wear a suit. And then, after the prosecutors hem and haw for *two hours!*, the judge finally grants the motion.

The good news: the client is now free and clear of the charges. The bad news: she still has to pay back the $5000 she borrowed from Sleazy Bail Bonds, Inc. at some outrageous interest rate. (She makes minimum wage as an in-home health care assistant.)

Also, for those of you concerned with how much money is wasted defending criminals, the county is out several hundred dollars at least, if you add up my time, the other attorney's time, the court's time, and so on. If prosecutors had just done the right thing, they'd have saved everybody stress, hassle, time, and money.