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Charged with 2nd degree trespass out of state and missed my court date. How should I proceed?
Anonymous3 views3 answers
I was charged with 2nd degree trespassing while on vacation in Asheville, NC in May. I live 12 hours away and didn't have the means to go back for court, which was in august. How should I proceed with this. Also, if I do nothing about it (which is I know is irresponsible), how could this effect me later in life. Will it bar me from getting financial aid for school, or show up on criminal back round checks?
Also I am not sure if this is relevant but I was never arrested, just given a ticket and told to leave, and since then, I have not heard anything from them or received any letters about warrants.
I will defer to the one or more highly qualified attorneys licensed in your state who post a response. My answer to all of your variant questions concerning future negative consequences is Yes. Since you mention aid for school I assume you are college age. Today in the age of the Internet, I don't believe that there is any criminal charge that is sufficiently minor that doing anything less than everything that can be done makes any sense at all. You need to talk with private counsel in NC, preferably the Asheville area to find out what your options may be under the circumstances. Most criminal attorneys provide free but usually limited initial consultations. Take advantage of that and talk to two or more. You will be educating yourself about options for addressing the matter and likely consequences of not vigorously defending yourself. You will also have the opportunity, by interviewing candidates for the job of representing you, to find an attorney with the necessary skills and experience and with whom you are comfortable. I highly recommend that you reach out to the NC attorneys who respond to your question. It is really really important, you will not later have a chance to replay this one. Good luck,
It was not necessary that they arrest you. The citation, or notice to appear, is all that you would have needed to receive. Nor would you expect any follow up notices, just the issuance of a warrant for your non-appearance.
Your either need to go back an appear or hire local counsel to appear for you. And do not wait any longer. It has already been far too long.
I would advise you speak to a local attorney about your matter. Someone who knows the local courts will be in a good position to advise you of what you can expect the courts to do in that county. However, to ignore the (likely) warrant that is out for your arrest for failure to appear in court could be disastrous if, by some crazy luck of the draw, such happened to pop up when you least expected it and you find yourself in jail awaiting transfer back to NC on a simple trespassing charge. To avoid that kind of inconvenience, and to avoid the charge/warrant possibly impacting your life when you least expect it, best course may be to just find a local attorney and deal with it.
