CRIMINAL LAW

In criminal law there are two kinds of charges: felonies and misdemeanors. A felony charges carry a minimum possible penalty of incarceration in a state prison for more than six months, while misdemeanors carry a maximum possible penalty of local jail time for up to six months. A list of the maximum penalties can be found at the end of this section.

If you have been contacted by law enforcement to be interviewed for a potential criminal charge, it is important that you do not discuss your case with anyone without an attorney experienced in criminal defense matters.

PROCEDURE OF A CRIMINAL CASE

A criminal case begins with a complaint alleging a charge and a short statement of the facts creating grounds for the offense. For a misdemeanor this may be a traffic ticket or other similar summons and complaint. For a felony this may be a city/state affidavit signed by a law enforcement officer or indictment issued by the grand jury.

PRIOR TO INDICTMENT

A felony charge can be brought by two methods. The first is by a law enforcement officer issuing a city/state affidavit in the municipal court where a preliminary hearing will be held. At the preliminary hearing you will be given the choice to 1) have a formal hearing with testimony where the judge will determine if there is probable cause (some evidence of the allegations) to allow the prosecutor to proceed with charges; or 2) to waive the preliminary hearing and consent that there is some information to base these allegations on. Whether you waive the hearing or go forward with the hearing, if the judge determines that there is probable cause, your case will be bound over to be presented to the grand jury. The second method in which a felony charge can be brought about is through the issuance of an indictment by the grand jury. When the facts surrounding your case are presented to the grand jury, the grand jury will again use the probable cause standard (i.e. is there some evidence?) to determine if formal felony charges shall be brought against you. If the grand jury does not find some evidence behind the allegations, then a “no bill” will be issued and no indictment will be forthcoming. If the grand jury finds there is some evidence forming a legitimate basis for the charges then the grand jury will issue an indictment formally charging you with this offense.

ARRAIGNMENT

Whether you have been served with a misdemeanor complaint or felony indictment, you will be presented with a copy of it and either be arrested or summonsed to appear in the county Common Pleas Court for a felony or the city Municipal Court for a misdemeanor for an arraignment. At the arraignment the judge is required to inform you of the charges against you as well as the maximum penalties that correspond to the charge. At the arraignment you will enter a plea (either “not guilty”, “no contest” or “guilty”), bond will be addressed, and a scheduling conference or pretrial conference date will be set. The conference is generally scheduled for shortly after the arraignment. The prosecutor will provide my office with the discovery package in your case and I will begin evaluating and challenging the evidence as well as discussing plea bargains and sentencing recommendations.

PRETRIAL CONFERENCE

At the scheduling conference or pretrial conference we must inform the judge 1) if you are changing your plea or are taking the matter to trial; 2) if there are any plea bargains; 3) disclose any potential witnesses and evidence; and 4) hear any pending pretrial motions that I have filed on your behalf. If your decision is to take your case to trial, the Court will set a trial date. If you enter into a plea bargain/sentencing recommendation it will happen at this hearing. If you decide to change your plea, in some instances your case will be set for a separate sentencing hearing and the court will order you to participate in a pre-sentence investigation prior to the sentencing hearing. The pre-sentence investigation is essentially an in-depth background check that will be presented to the court and can be very influential in the court’s determination of its sentence.

JURY TRIAL

If you decide that you want a jury trial in your case, your trial fees will have to be paid in full two weeks prior to the jury trial date. Payments for services are not an option. Therefore, start budgeting for trial now. The county in which your case is to be heard will determine the length of your trial. The jury trial process can be a lengthy one depending on the county in which we are presenting your case and the issues being discussed.

At a trial, the first thing the court will do is address any pending motions in limine to exclude/preclude or limit evidence. The next thing we do is start the jury selection or voir dire process. In Ohio, we have eight person juries in misdemeanor cases, twelve person juries in felony cases and usually one or two alternate jurors as backup depending on the length of the trial. All jurors must agree in order to convict and it will take only one juror to hang the jury requiring a mistrial. Questions are posed to prospective jurors regarding their bias, prejudices and fitness to stand as a juror in a case.

After the jury is selected then both the prosecutor and defense attorney has the option of delivering an opening statement. After the opening statement, the prosecution, since it has the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt, begins their case in chief and starts calling their witness against you. After each witness of the prosecution and before their next witness is defense counsel’s opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses the state places against you. Like a skilled surgeon cutting open a patient to expose the problems, our cross-examination of the State’s witnesses should do no less. Rigorous cross-examination is the only vehicle for truth in a criminal trial. The State will rest after their last witness and the defense may or may not put on a case. Depending on the state of the case, we may or may not call any witnesses to the stand. It is important to provide me with the names of all witnesses you believe are pertinent to your case early in our discussions so they are not precluded from being called at trial. After we put on our case, the prosecution has an opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses. After that, the judge, the prosecution and defense will discuss how to instruct the jury on the applicable law. Once that has been accomplished both counsel will engage in closing argument.

After closing argument, the jury will then be sent to deliberate and attempt to reach a verdict. Sometimes during deliberations, jurors will pose questions to the court and counsel will argue about the appropriate responses. The deliberation process will yield one of two outcomes, a verdict or an inability to reach a decision resulting in a hung trial/mistrial. Depending on how the vote went, the prosecutor has the option of re-trying the case at a future date, offering a plea bargain to a reduced charge, or dismissing the case.

COURT ATTIRE

You are required to appear at all scheduled hearings and you should be dressed appropriately. Men should wear a suit, pants with a shirt and jacket, or pants with a shirt and women should dress professionally. Please do not wear sunglasses, a baseball cap or shorts. When going to court dress and act like you would when applying for a job or attending a funeral.

CLIENT NOTICE

Please note that after each development in your case a letter will be forwarded to you regarding what has occurred, when the next appearance is scheduled, copies of any documents relating to your case obtained as well as important information which may be needed from you. In other words, you will be informed throughout the process of all that is going on with your case. If you still have any questions regarding your case that our letters do not address, please do not hesitate to contact our office. My legal assistants can usually answer the basic questions such as confirming court dates, confirming payment due dates, and verifying certain information in the file. If you need to speak with me directly and I am not in the office at the time you call, please leave a detailed message with my staff so that I can return your phone call promptly with a response. I am usually in court every morning and the best time to reach me directly would be the early afternoon.

Remember that you are not to discuss your case with anyone except me, my office staff, and those people I have directed to speak with you. If you have any questions concerning this, please call our office immediately. Furthermore, if you have any documents relating to this arrest, please forward them to our office at once.
 

CLIENT RESPONSIBILITIES

In a criminal case with our office, other than reviewing the police report and transcripts, completing questionnaires, providing documents and witnesses and making your payments, there may not be a lot for you to do and that may be a bit frustrating. Please be assured that we are working vigorously and diligently on your case so your patience, understanding and consideration is requested and will be appreciated.

MAXIMUM PENALTIES FOR MISDEMEANORS

First Degree Misdemeanor (M-1): up to six months in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000.

Second degree Misdemeanor (M-2): up to ninety days in jail and/or a fine of up to $750.

Third Degree Misdemeanor (M-3): up to sixty days in jail and/or a fine of up to $500.

Fourth Degree Misdemeanor (M-4): up to thirty days in jail and/or a fine of up to $250.

Minor Misdemeanor (MM) is punishable by a fine of up to $150 and possibly community service.

Maximum Penalties for Felonies

First Degree Felony (F-1): Up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $20,000.

Second Degree Felony (F-2): Up to 8 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $15,000.

Third Degree Felony (F-3): Up to 5 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.

Fourth Degree Felony (F-4): Up to 18 months in prison and/or a fine of up to $5,000.

Fifth Degree Felony (F-5): Up to 12 months in prison and/or a fine of up to $2,500.