If you were arrested and charged with a crime, get a lawyer as soon as you can. The police and prosecutors involved in the case have a lot of tools they can use to push you into a guilty plea or make it harder for you to fight the case, and a lawyer helps level the playing field.
Our attorneys can help protect your rights by challenging illegal evidence and representing you throughout the process. We can fight for bail so you can fight the charges outside of a jail cell, and we can even seek to get cases dismissed or dropped when possible.
Call Overson & Bugden’s criminal defense lawyers at (801) 758-2287 for a free case evaluation.
What Should You Expect After Being Arrested?
You should expect these kinds of issues after an arrest:
Questions
Police often interrogate you after arresting you. If you give them the information they are looking for, they will not just let you go. Instead, they will usually use it to convict you or treat it as an admission of guilt.
Do not talk to the police about your case without your lawyer present. Say you want to remain silent and wait for your lawyer, then call our criminal defense lawyers.
Multiple Court Dates
Traffic tickets and low-level “infractions” may be resolved in one court date, but most cases involve more than one visit to the courthouse. You may have an arraignment, preliminary hearing, bail hearings, and multiple pre-trial conferences before the actual trial date.
Missing any court dates could result in having your bail revoked or increased.
Plea Negotiations
Most cases involve some level of discussion about dropping or reducing charges in exchange for a guilty plea. This “plea bargaining” process can be beneficial to both sides because it prevents the need to try every case (which would be expensive for the government) and may result in lower penalties.
However, you do not have to accept a plea bargain if you would rather fight the case. The prosecution also does not have to offer a plea deal at all.
Trial
If you want to press your case all the way to trial, we can prepare you for that. There, the government needs to prove every element of the case beyond a reasonable doubt to convict you.
Should You Take a Plea Deal?
Whether or not to take a plea deal is a personal choice, but we can provide plenty of advice on your specific case. These general issues are also worth considering:
Plea May Be a Better Outcome
A plea deal might secure a better outcome than you would be likely to get if you are ultimately found guilty, potentially saving years of jail time.
Results in a Conviction
At the same time, pleading guilty means immediately being convicted of the crime. This puts a black mark on your criminal record, even if the penalties are not too severe.
Charges May Be Reduced
Charges could be reduced as part of a plea agreement, potentially avoiding more serious potential penalties. For example, a misdemeanor results in 364 days max as the possible sentence, while felonies could see over a year in jail.
Prosecutors Cannot Promise Specific Sentences
However, the prosecution cannot promise a specific sentence. As part of a plea agreement, they can agree to petition the sentencing judge for a certain sentence or to take certain factors into account to lower the penalties, but they cannot tell the judge what penalty to use.
The prosecution may be able to foreclose certain options – e.g., agreeing not to seek a handgun enhancement or the death penalty – but the judge can still issue a high penalty within the available range.
What Defenses Are Available?
Different cases have different possible defenses, but these are common:
Mistaken Identity
If we can say that the people who identified you as the perpetrator were mistaken, we can show reasonable doubt. This is especially true if there is someone else you were likely confused for.
Alibi
If we have hard proof you were somewhere else, it makes it much harder to say you were the one who committed the crime.
Self-Defense/Defense of Another
If you were acting in self-defense or defense of another when you committed an otherwise illegal act, it is not a crime. However, there are requirements to meet about when self-defense is reasonable and when the force used is proportional.
Suppression of Illegally Obtained Evidence
If the police stopped you without reasonable suspicion, searched you without probable cause, or otherwise violated your constitutional rights to get evidence, it should be blocked. This could block enough evidence that they cannot convict you.
What Are Dropped vs. Dismissed Charges?
When a case is “dropped,” it means that the prosecutors have withdrawn the charges. Prosecutors are supposed to drop charges if they do not think they have enough evidence to convict you, and they should be especially sure to drop the charges if they think you were innocent.
Judges dismiss charges when the case against you is not legally sufficient to go through. For example, if there is no probable cause to charge you, the case should be dismissed at the preliminary hearing stage. If elements are missing, the charges can be dismissed at any point, even during trial.
Do You Need a Criminal Defense Lawyer?
You can technically act as your own lawyer, but you should never do this. Even lawyers get their own defense lawyers, because there are plenty of things that are difficult to do as the defendant.
We can advise you on what you should and should not say to the police, when plea deals are appropriate, and act as a go-between with you and the court. We can also get access to evidence and talk to witnesses, which is difficult for a defendant to do on their own, especially if they did not make bail.
Is Utah a Harsh State for Criminal Penalties?
Some of Utah’s definitions of crimes are stricter than other states. For example, we have the lowest BAC rate for DUIs in the country at .05 (instead of the standard .08). Our penalties are often in line with other states, with one notably strict fact: Utah is a death penalty state.
Can You Get Probation as a First-Time Offender?
Often, you can, and there are three general reasons for this
- Many of the crimes committed by first-time offenders are low-level offenses that do not always incur jail penalties (possession of marijuana, small-dollar theft).
- Sentencing guidelines generally give lower penalties for first-time offenders.
- Plea agreements and pre-trial diversion programs may be available to avoid jail.
Call Our Grantsville Criminal Defense Attorneys Today
Call (801) 758-2287 for a free case review with the criminal defense attorneys at Overson & Bugden.
