Legal Question in Criminal Law in Kentucky

Re: Twenty Day Rule

If you are picked up on a citation, not an indictment, the Court has 20 days to conduct a preliminary hearing, assuming you are not in jail. If you are in jail, the Court has 10 days to conduct a preliminary hearing.

If you are picked up on an indictment warrant, and have not been charged prior to the indictment, you don't get a preliminary hearing.

Re: Twenty Day Rule

The time during which you were entitled to a preliminary hearing unless you waived it. Since the charges were dismissed, this procedural failure has not hurt you.

Re: Twenty Day Rule

You cannot be prosecuted for a felony unless a grand jury

indicts you (or unless you waive that right). Law enforcement

can charge you with a felony by citation, but cannot proceed

unless a grand jury ultimately indicts you.

When you receive the citation, you are brought into

district court for arraignment on the charge, setting of

bond, and setting of a preliminary hearing, all pending

grand jury action. The preliminary hearing forces the

prosecution to persuade the judge that there is probable

cause to believe that a felony has been committed and that

you committed it.

If you are in custody, the preliminary hearing must be held

within 10 days; it must occur within 20 days if you have been released from

custody.

If the hearing is not held within the time specified, and you

have not waived your right to have it within that time, the

charges must be dismissed. The dismissal is "without

prejudice" which means that the prosecutor can bring the

same charges against you later, usually by submitting an

indictment directly to the grand jury.