The police often make promises that they cannot or have no intention of delivering on. There is nothing illegal about this. Don't rely on promises of leniency or the line that it is your civic duty to cooperate. If you are a suspect … the police are not your friends. If they are asking you questions … then you are a suspect. Tell the police nothing. Ask for a Tampa criminal lawyer and shut up. Do not pay attention to their threats. If you are going to be charged, it will be because of the evidence that they have. If they have evidence, they will charge you. If they don't, they will not. If you talk to them, the only evidence they ever get may be your own statement.
If you are arrested, you'll be "booked." What this means is that you will be processed into the local jail. You will be fingerprinted and photographed (don't be surprised if your friends can see your booking photo on the Internet). Then you will be put in a holding cell until you can be brought in front of a magistrate or judge. The judge or magistrate may or may not ask you if you are guilty. Their role at this stage is to set a bail bond and perhaps see if you need a court appointed lawyer.
You have the option of release on bond unless your alleged crime is such a violent one that no bond is to be set. Some murder charges and seriously violent crimes may have no bond at all. If your offense is relatively minor, you may be released on a personal recognizance bond. This is usually pretty rare. Normally, a bail bondsman will charge a fixed percentage of the bail amount as their fee for posting the bond. They are basically making you a loan to purchase your temporary release. If you fail to appear at court the bondman loses his money and will come looking for you or your family's assets to pay him back. Typically in Florida bondsman charge about ten percent of the bail as their fee. You will not get this money back when your case is over.
Whether you bond out or not, you can expect to be brought before a judge again in the near future for something called an “arraignment.” Typically, this is the time when you plead guilty or innocent. At this stage you may be appointed a Tampa criminal attorney if you could not afford one or you may be given time to hire one.
After the arraignment your case will probably be set for at least one hearing date for you to decide whether or not to enter a plea bargain. In Florida these are called “disposition hearings", "status hearings", or simply "pre-trial conferences.” There may also be settings for Motion Hearings and other hearings.
Once you are charged you may be offered a plea recommendation by a prosecutor may offer you a plea recommendation. You are not required to enter into any kind of plea bargain. In a criminal case you basically have two choices at any time. You can negotiate and enter a plea bargain or you can set your case for trial and let a jury decide. No one can make the prosecutor offer a better deal than they offer. They cannot make you accept a plea recommendation that you do not want. If you refuse the offer and cannot reach an agreement, then trial is your only alternative.
Trial in a criminal case is different than trial in a civil case. The prosecutor generally goes first in jury selection, opening statement, presenting witnesses and closing argument. In Florida, the law changed in 2006 so that the prosecutor gets to do his or her closing argument first and last. You do not have to testify at trial. You have a 5th Fifth Amendment right to not testify. Sometimes this is important. If you have a lot of prior convictions and then testify, the prosecutor will get to talk to the jury about a lot of these prior offenses. If you do not testify, then the jury may never hear about those prior offenses. In the context of a jury trial many jurors tend to believe that where there is smoke there is fire.
This may mean that if they hear about other offenses of yours they may tend to be more likely to accept the prosecutor’s version of the case and that you committed this crime you are charged with. In many instances it can be better not to testify if you have a prior criminal record.
If the jury finds you not guilty then you go home a free person. If they find you guilty you will have to be sentenced. In Florida, you would likely have a separate hearing on punishment.
Possible consequences of a conviction in Florida are incarceration in the Florida Department of Corrections, incarceration in a the county jail facility, probation, fines and many other possibilities.
IIn a nutshell, this is about what you can expect from the criminal justice system. There may be some procedural differences depending upon where you have been charged. Many court procedures are geared towards intimidating you into entering a plea bargain. Large crowds will be at virtually every hearing. Prosecutors and court personnel will be pushing people through like a herd of cattle. The object is to dispose of cases as quickly as possible. A good lawyer will throw a wrench in their works by establishing early that your case will not be quickly disposed of and that you will not be taking whatever they feel like offering. Find a good Tampa or Clearwater criminal lawyer - call us at (813) 222-0032.
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