My ticket says disorderly conduct and has the code 2c below. I just spoke w a friend who is a laywer and he did confirm this is in fact a criminal charge, not a violation. He told me I need to get it knocked down to petty disorderly person which is only a violation and will not be on my record.
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”.
they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.
[quote]phishfood1128 wrote:
OctoberGirl wrote:
phishfood1128 wrote:
admbaum wrote:
every instance where a cop writes your name down goes on your record in Texas, even warnings for traffic violations.
I am just speaking from experience as to the situation up here. I am from the tri-state area and have had a bunch of DCs. I am not proud of it but I know the process. At least in this area, violations, such as traffic violations or DCs, do not go on your record. So searching for a job or grad school admittance will not be effected.
If the OP is a first time offender the total fine is going to be between $75 and $150. So to pay that on top of a lawyer (which isnt necessary) is not really worth it. That sucks though that small violations go on record in Texas. If i am ever down there i will most surely be on my best behavior.
every ticket and citation goes on your record. Think of traffic tickets. They stay on there.
You can be cited or arrested without being charged and perhaps then convicted. Cops can’t charge you, only the Prosecutor charges you.
This is why an attorney is a good idea. There is a lot of variables.
The OP should check out some attorneys, see if there is a local law school, or cough up the dough.
I have had DCs a couple of times and they are not on my record. I have cleared background checks for jobs. Maybe its different from state to state. As for traffic tickets, they stay on your record for up to 3 years. But that is mainly used for insurance purposes. In NY violations such as DCs dont show up on job background checks. [/quote]
We may be disagreeing on semantics because things stay on your record but might not be researched back for an extended period of time.
And your DC would depend on the level of the charge.
but this is why you need an attorney.
[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”. they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.[/quote]
Agreed on all accounts, except the cop probably will show up for court - he gets overtime for that.
[quote]admbaum wrote:
In Texas we have this thing called deferred adjudication. If you plea guilty, and the judge sentences you with deferred adjudication probation, and you dont get in trouble, it gets wiped off your record. I was on it once in my previous thug life. I did a google search and found a few cases of deferred adjudication in Jersey so I know its in the law books there. Get a lawyer, its gonna cost a mint, but it can be removed off your record if you complete probation with no incidents.[/quote]
We have these in Jersey too. There’s 2 forms:
PTI (pre trial intervention)
http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/criminal/crpti.htm
and conditional discharge for pot related offenses.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
TheBodyGuard wrote:
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”. they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.
Agreed on all accounts, except the cop probably will show up for court - he gets overtime for that.[/quote]
I dont know about the pay (overtime) but the cop may not show up. Usually the judge just uses the deposition as a replacement for the cop being there.
To OP. I am sure they will drop it down to a violation. It would be best to ask your friend (who is a lawyer) to take a state appointed lawyer so you can save money or some of the suggestions of octobergirl. However i think if you walk in the judge will offer to lower on the spot in order to get those bills. Its all about money. Im very surprised you got a 2c for knocking some kids hat off. That cop must have had a bad day. Maybe he was a red sox fan.
My friend who is a laywer is a tax lawyer and has a real issue w authority so I am not going to bring him. I did just talk to a lawyer who defends a number of cases in Newark and he told me he can get 90%-95% of these knocked down to a municipal violation which is like a glorified traffic ticket and not on my record.
He would cost $450 and another $250 if we had to go to trial.
I am leaning towards pleading not guilty and showing up myself. If the prosecuter will knock it down to something not on my record I will take it and if not I will ask for a lawyer and call the attorney back.
My college roomate’s sister is also a cop in another town. I was telling him the story and he said she would prob be willing to call the cop who got me and ask if he would drop this. Is that a route I should go down or will that just maybe piss the guy off and then he will want to nail me even worse?
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
TheBodyGuard wrote:
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”. they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.
Agreed on all accounts, except the cop probably will show up for court - he gets overtime for that.[/quote]
in NYC he is unlikely to show for this. true they get overtime, but the court will take a crack at resolving it before requiring him to appear. even if OP wanted a trial that day, he likely couldn’t get one. this thread is hilarious with some very frustrated lawyers here. i here more intelligent legal speak from cons.
[quote]DB297 wrote:
My friend who is a laywer is a tax lawyer and has a real issue w authority so I am not going to bring him. I did just talk to a lawyer who defends a number of cases in Newark and he told me he can get 90%-95% of these knocked down to a municipal violation which is like a glorified traffic ticket and not on my record. He would cost $450 and another $250 if we had to go to trial.
I am leaning towards pleading not guilty and showing up myself. If the prosecuter will knock it down to something not on my record I will take it and if not I will ask for a lawyer and call the attorney back.
My college roomate’s sister is also a cop in another town. I was telling him the story and he said she would prob be willing to call the cop who got me and ask if he would drop this. Is that a route I should go down or will that just maybe piss the guy off and then he will want to nail me even worse? [/quote]
I’ll just throw in my 2 cents because I have some experience in this area. It will be on your record becasue it’s a criminal offense. So if they run a criinal history check more than likely it will come up. Somtiemes mistakes are made and it won’t show up for some odd reason.
The good news is that it’s a BS charge and even the cop will most likely agree on that. He issued you the summons to quell small problems before they turn into bigger problems. If they don’t take action with minor stuff like this then people get drunk and get more brazen with actions and then big problems break out.
That being said these are your options.
- You can go to court and speak to the prosecutor yourself and offer to plead to a summons that doesn’t go on your record and you just pay a fine. %99 percent of the time they have no problem doing this because the case load is so big their happy to get you out quick. Especially on minor offenses.
- You can bring a lawyer and he can do that for you with an even higher chance of the same outcome.
- This is the option I would try first. Have your cop buddy call the cop and ask if you can plea bargain it down to a type of summons that won’t go on your record. The cop is usually happy to help and will speak to the prosecutor before you get there and have it pre arranged.
Good luck.
[quote]DB297 wrote:
My college roomate’s sister is also a cop in another town. I was telling him the story and he said she would prob be willing to call the cop who got me and ask if he would drop this. Is that a route I should go down or will that just maybe piss the guy off and then he will want to nail me even worse? [/quote]
There is usually a certain amount of professional courtesy extended among law enforcement agencies. It is all case dependent (maybe the cop is a prick), but in my experience, it rarely hurts.
[quote]phishfood1128 wrote:
LankyMofo wrote:
TheBodyGuard wrote:
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”. they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.
Agreed on all accounts, except the cop probably will show up for court - he gets overtime for that.
I dont know about the pay (overtime) but the cop may not show up. Usually the judge just uses the deposition as a replacement for the cop being there.
To OP. I am sure they will drop it down to a violation. It would be best to ask your friend (who is a lawyer) to take a state appointed lawyer so you can save money or some of the suggestions of octobergirl. However i think if you walk in the judge will offer to lower on the spot in order to get those bills. Its all about money. Im very surprised you got a 2c for knocking some kids hat off. That cop must have had a bad day. Maybe he was a red sox fan. [/quote]
where do you get this from? deposition? there has been no deposition. and whatever is written on the ticket is heresay until the party that wrote it shows up to testify to it. pretrial intervention, this and that, all this psuedo-legal masturbation for a disorderly ticket they are likely to dismiss or reduce. no laywers. no sweat. sheesh. you people watch too much tv.
[quote]DB297 wrote:
My friend who is a laywer is a tax lawyer and has a real issue w authority so I am not going to bring him. I did just talk to a lawyer who defends a number of cases in Newark and he told me he can get 90%-95% of these knocked down to a municipal violation which is like a glorified traffic ticket and not on my record.
He would cost $450 and another $250 if we had to go to trial.
I am leaning towards pleading not guilty and showing up myself. If the prosecuter will knock it down to something not on my record I will take it and if not I will ask for a lawyer and call the attorney back.
My college roomate’s sister is also a cop in another town. I was telling him the story and he said she would prob be willing to call the cop who got me and ask if he would drop this. Is that a route I should go down or will that just maybe piss the guy off and then he will want to nail me even worse? [/quote]
might piss him off if you’re not an immediate family member but who knows how these idiots will react? you just as might easily be putting yourself in his radar screen for a minor ticket he has already forgotten about unless he is informed to show up for court one day. go to court, plead not guilty, see what happens. you can always ask for a continuance and representation if it doesn’t play to your satisfaction. its not any more complicated than that.
[quote]admbaum wrote:
In Texas we have this thing called deferred adjudication. If you plea guilty, and the judge sentences you with deferred adjudication probation, and you dont get in trouble, it gets wiped off your record. I was on it once in my previous thug life. I did a google search and found a few cases of deferred adjudication in Jersey so I know its in the law books there. Get a lawyer, its gonna cost a mint, but it can be removed off your record if you complete probation with no incidents.[/quote]
That is incorrect. A deferred case will still show up as an arrest with no conviction history. You need to take the extra step of filing for an “Order of Nondisclosure” once the deferred period is completed. (yes, I am an attorney practicing criminal defense in Texas). The provision for a nondisclosure is relatively new.
[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
phishfood1128 wrote:
LankyMofo wrote:
TheBodyGuard wrote:
i couldn’t even finish reading all this hysterial advice. the cop was being a dick. busting your balls. you do not (yet) need a lawyer. first, plead not guilty. second, go to court and see how they desire to resolve it. the cop is very unlikely to even show up for this ticket and believe me, for these types of tickets, they are playing “let’s make a deal”. they want money, not a pint of blood from you. there will be no witness. the guy whose hat you knocked off certainly won’t be there. so, plead not guilty, show up for court, play let’s make a deal and if you are not satisfied with your deal (which should be some fine), ask for a continuance and knock yourself out with the lawyers if you wish.
Agreed on all accounts, except the cop probably will show up for court - he gets overtime for that.
I dont know about the pay (overtime) but the cop may not show up. Usually the judge just uses the deposition as a replacement for the cop being there.
To OP. I am sure they will drop it down to a violation. It would be best to ask your friend (who is a lawyer) to take a state appointed lawyer so you can save money or some of the suggestions of octobergirl. However i think if you walk in the judge will offer to lower on the spot in order to get those bills. Its all about money. Im very surprised you got a 2c for knocking some kids hat off. That cop must have had a bad day. Maybe he was a red sox fan.
where do you get this from? deposition? there has been no deposition. and whatever is written on the ticket is heresay until the party that wrote it shows up to testify to it. pretrial intervention, this and that, all this psuedo-legal masturbation for a disorderly ticket they are likely to dismiss or reduce. no laywers. no sweat. sheesh. you people watch too much tv.
[/quote]
I get this from personal experience. The cops fill out paperwork that describes what he saw that is presented the D.A. and the judge. The cop has never showed on any DC that I have gotten since it is a violation. I have been saying since my first post in the thread that the OP does not need a lawyer. Its not that serious of a matter. A fine and a slap on the wrist.