Possession of Marijuana – Canton Lawyer – 35th District Court
When our client came to us his case was a mess. He had already plead to one count of possession of marijuana without a lawyer and was waiting his sentencing, but before that happened he was arrested a second time for another possession which means he was also in violation of his bond. At the end of the case the bond violation was ignored, and both possession of marijuana charges were suppressed.
Our client left the 35th District Court with out having a criminal conviction and without doing a day of jail. Canton lawyer, Aaron J. Boria is an experienced and aggressive criminal defense lawyer. Boria takes on a limited number of cases in order to make sure that the cases he does take on receive the absolute best possible representation available.
Call (734) 453-7806 or email BoriaLaw@gmail.com for a free consultation and to see if your case is a good fir for our firm.
Possession of Marijuana
Possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, which means if convicted you could face a jail term. Even with the passage of medical marijuana and other states legalizing its use, possession of marijuana still remains a serious criminal charge that is punishable by up to one year in jail, a $1,000.00 plus costs, and the suspension of your driver’s license, that’s more serious than a DUI.
In this case our client was driving through a Canton subdivision at night with some buddies in his car. Little did they know that a neighbor just so happened to have called Canton Police because he thought someone was breaking into his car (completely unrelated to our client). When the officer arrived in the area the only car he observed was our client’s so he pulled our client over.
Upon stopping the vehicle the officer smelt marijuana and ordered our client out of the vehicle. Our client was questioned and admitted that there was in fact marijuana in the car. The car was searched and marijuana was recovered. The officer gave our client a ticket for possession of marijuana with notice to appear at the 35th District Court for arraignment.
As mentioned above a possession of marijuana charge is a serious criminal charge. A possession of marijuana charge while you are already in court with another criminal charge pending is grim, and unfortunately for our client that was now his reality. The bond violation is discussed below.
35th District Court – Criminal Charge – Lawyer
Both of our client’s pending charge and new charge were at the 35th District Court, which has jurisdiction of Canton cases. This means that if you a charged with a crime by Canton Police, Wayne County Sheriff acting in Canton, or State Police acting in Canton your matter will be heard at the 35th District Court located in Plymouth.
There are three judges that your matter could be assigned to at 35th District Court. Our client was assigned to Judge Ronald Lowe for both cases.
We filed a motion in this case to challenge the stop. Police cannot legally pull you over even if there was criminal activity in the area. In this case the person that called the police didn’t see anyone, he simply heard his car alarm go off. It was during the winter and there were no footprints near the car. Basically, there was no identifying information whatsoever, so pulling someone over because they are in the area is not a good stop.
We lost the motion, which was a major disappointment. The prosecutor and cop argued that the vehicle of teens fit the description of the type of thief you would expect to see in this subdivision. The judge agreed. Frankly, we should have appealed. This case was a winner. The client and his family were split on the issue as to whether or not we should appeal. The client decided that he just wanted to resolve the case and not drag it on so that is what we did.
Holmes Youthful Trainee Act – HYTA
When we went back to court and appeared in front of Judge Lowe we had a fairly long sentencing hearing where we made a motion and convinced Judge Lowe to accept our client under a special statute for both possession of marijuana charges.
In this particular case the statute is called HYTA, which is short for Holmes Youthful Trainee Act. HYTA allows a person to receive special status where the legal effect is that they are not convicted of a crime. Under HYTA you will not have an arrest record or a criminal conviction. Under HYTA you can legally tell schools, employers, and anyone else that you have never been convicted of a crime. HYTA is not automatic and many judges need to be convinced that they should grant a person the special status. In some cases the prosecuting attorney in addition to the judge must agree to the special status.
Our client was granted HYTA, and now, no one but him can even look at the file at the 35th District Courthouse. No criminal record, no loss of license, no branding of being a drug addict.
Bond Violation – 35th District Court
Three things can happen regarding a bond in a criminal case. When you are charged with a crime the police may make you post a bond in order to go home, or they may take you to the judge who will make you post a bond, or you will be given a ticket to show up to court and when you do you will have to post a bond.
A bond is a promise that you will come back to the courthouse and answer to your accusers. In this case our client had to answer to the 35th District Court and Canton Prosecutor.
The term “post a bond” is used loosely because you may not have to physically post anything at all. You could get a personal bond where you simply promise that you will come back to court but if you don’t you owe money. In other cases you will have to actually pay money in order to leave the court. This money will be given back to you if you are found to be not guilty or your case is dismissed.
Along with posting the money or making the promise in order to leave the court the judge may add bond conditions. In almost every criminal case one of the bond conditions is to not be charged with a new crime like our client was. If you violate your bond you can be held in jail while your case progresses. It also increases the chances of being sentenced to jail rather than probation if you end up pleading guilty later or you are found guilty.
Since our client was charged with a new crime while he was on bond he violated his bond conditions, which meant the judge could revoke his bond and put him in jail and also meant that his odds of going to jail were greater.
We were able to get the judge to overlook the bond violation. Again his charge was sealed, and no one will know about it.
Canton Lawyer
If you have been charged with a crime in Canton or you have to answer to the 35th District Court then you need to call Canton lawyer, Aaron J. Boria.
Boria is an experienced criminal defense lawyer that goes above and beyond for his clients to obtain results that other lawyers simply cannot. Call (734) 453-7806 or email borialaw@gmail.com for a consultation.
