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pretrial officer

ndmarie
ndmarie
It's been over 2 weeks since my husband had his indictment(CP charges) and was given his pretrial release restrictions and with that, given a pretrial officer. My husband called the pretrial officer the night we got back from court, which was July 16th. The officer never returned his call, so my husband called again I believe 2 days later on July 18th, again had to leave a message, the officer did call back and said he would meet up with my husband the next week. So, the following week, my husband once again called and left a message, and since then has called every few days checking in(never getting more then voicemail), my husband has left a message every time, but no call backs from the officer. I don't know what to think. What concerns me is there were a few restrictions that were vague and were ultimately up to what the officer wanted to do. Since we have not been able to have a meeting with the officer since these restrictions were placed, my husband has followed the restrictions the best that we can, but it still makes me nervous that we haven't officially been able to hash out the details to make sure he is following the restrictions exactly how the officer wants it done. I guess I was just expecting routine check ups or at the very least an initial meeting to work out the details of the restrictions. Does this sound normal or should we be concerned? Any feedback on this would be great! Thanks!!
amynmesa
amynmesa
My brother was on pretrial release for two years before taking his plea..I have to admit, his experience was much different than what you guys are dealing with. He was charged with possesion of cp. The day he was to be released from jail to pretrial than wouldn't even let him leave the jail until his pretrial release officer came out to the house, did a walk thru and verified all terms were being met. It was very similar to what his terms of probation are now. Every week it was guaranteed that his PO (pretrial officer) would stop by the house, always at a different time than the week prior and verify he was following all the rules set fourth by pretrial.

What state are you in? Maybe he will luck out and his time spent on pretrial release won't amount to the stocking expedition that my brothers did..
ndmarie
ndmarie
We are in North Dakota, but it's Federal. Wow, 2 years? I can't even imagine. Was there a reason why it took so long to take a plea? Was it state or federal?
amynmesa
amynmesa
His charges were state, and we live in Arizona. His case took so long for a couple reasons. At the time, we, like everyone else, were very nieve of the law. What we did know was that the cops clearly went outside the scope of the original search warrant in obtaining my brothers computer. We thought, if we hold out long enough that the court would see that the only evidence they had against my brother was obtained illegally and thus should be suppressed and the charges would be dismissed. HAHAHAHAHA funny right?? lol that is so funny that I thought the fourth amendment applied to silly people like us. Another reason it his pretrial phase lasted so long was because we were trying to get him an autism diagnosis , so his sentencing guidlines would be lighter since once and if he got the diagnosis he would fall under the Americans with Disabilities act. Getting a diagnosis like that from start to finish can take months and months. It did help, but not nearly as much as we were told it would.
ndmarie
ndmarie
I'm sorry the diagnosis didn't help him more. How is your brother doing now? Did he end up with only probation or was there jail time also?
deleted_user
deleted_user
My sons pretrial officer constantly changes the rules. First he could drink beer, now he cant. One of the rules is that he has to do what the PO says...so that means the PO can just make shit up and my son has to do it. Once, it was hot so my son had on shorts and tshirt..PO told him that he looked like a homeless bum. Next time he went, he was wearing his suit and said is this better? LOL So far he hasnt had any home visits.... he has to check in at the PO's office once a week.
ndmarie
ndmarie
My husband mentioned it to his lawyer the other day and the lawyer said to not worry about it, that it just means they must not feel they have to worry with him. He advised my husband to keep on doing what he's doing, which is calling in every few days to check in and according to his lawyer that's good enough. Just hoping this doesn't come back to bite us later on. At least my husband has been using his cell phone to check in, so if nothing else we will have phone records to show how often my husband has been checking in.