Not Guilty Chapter 2 | The Initial Incarceration

WHEN AN ALLEGED CRIME has been committed, the state prosecutor’s office located in the county where the alleged crime has been committed has 24 hours to file charges, or the defendant must be released. There are applicable time periods during which the State must file charges, called the statute of limitations, and if the State waits too long, charges can no longer be filed. Generally, the State has one year to file misdemeanors, and three years to file felonies, but there are many exceptions. For example, there is no statute of limitations on murder. To get information on a specific situation, contact a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.

Allegations – things accused of happening but not proven yet.

Prosecutor – The role of the State Prosecutor’s Office is to bring charges for alleged crimes into the court system. The Prosecutor’s office may also be referred to as the “prosecuting attorney”, “PA”, the “prosecutor”, the “assistant prosecuting attorney”, “APA”, the “district attorney”, the “DA”, or the “State”).

Defendant – The person accused of committing a crime. The defendant and/or his attorney may also be referred to as the “defense”.

Jurisdiction – The location where the alleged crime took place (jurisdiction also addresses the authority over a location, persons or events).

Alexis was initially dropped off, after a thoroughly invasive pat-down, at the County Jail in the “drunk tank”; a dank, filthy cell, where she passed out on a damp, stained mat, until sometime in the morning when she started puking again. She leaned against the door and called for help, and the jailers did not respond. She passed back out shortly thereafter, and woke up later, choking and covered with puke, with a raging headache. She finally had the wherewithal to ask to use the phone, and then couldn’t reach anyone whose number she could actually remember. She was given a severely limited amount of time to make phone calls. The phone numbers for a couple bondsman and one lawyer had been scratched into the wall. She called one of the bondsman, who showed up roughly an hour later. It took law enforcement the better part of twelve hours to figure out who she actually was. At midnight, not quite 24 hours after the initial arrest, they released her out the back door with a date to appear in court, in the same clothes she had come in wearing, still smelling of vomit, with her belongings in a wrinkled paper bag tucked under her arm. Her cellphone was dead. Her bondsman called a family member for a ride.

Braxton was transported by ambulance to the hospital. His family was notified that he was in the hospital, and his family hired an attorney and bondsman before he ever left the hospital. Once the hospital determined that he was fit for confinement, he was transported to the jail. His bondsman posted his bond within an hour of his arrival at the jail and before they ever got around to changing him into an orange jump suit. He was notified of what his court date would be. He made no effort to assist Alexis in posting bond from the jail.