Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

You probably need to re-post your question in the INDIANA Criminal Law section of lawguru.com ... not the Michigan Criminal Law section. Those lawyers would know what that kind of crime is, what the procedure would be in Indiana, etc. One thing that will be important is what the "distance" of the arrest warrant is (e.g., 25 miles, 100 miles, state-wide in Indiana, contiguous states to Indiana, nation-wide) because that will effect the zone within which a police agency might be able to arrest the person on the warrant and how far the local Indiana authorities will travel to haul the person back. when the defendant is across state lines, things get trickier because each state has both sovereign rights (so Indiana police can't just drive into Michigan and pick you up at your house and drive you back across state borders) AND agrees to respect the laws of the other states. So there's a process called extradition to allow the states to work out the transfer of the defendant across state lines. If the warrant said "neighboring state pick-up", then Michigan police could arrest you on the Indiana felony and would "confirm the warrant" with the Indiana people (that the warrant is still valid and that they will extradite). Then the local Michigan prosecutor would issue a misdemeanor "hold-'em" kind of charged called "Fugitive from Justice" that lets our court decide on an appropriate bond to control you until Indiana finishes its extradition process. That process could include you "waiving extradition" (agreeing to be taken back), or you can fight extradition and there's a more complicated paperwork and hearing process I won't bore you with. (I also will not bore you with quotes from that 1970s song about "Indiana wants me. Lord, I can't go back there.") If you want to fight any extradition process, you should get an attorney experienced in those matters. You may also want to talk to an attorney about the felony case facts, and the wisdom of pre-emptively returning to Indiana and "turning yourself in" on the warrant you learned about in the letter. That move may well help you down the line (a judge might agree to a personal recognizance bond because you proved yourself trust-worthy -- that you are the opposite of a flight risk). I'm not telling you to do that, though. I'm telling you to talk to an Indiana attorney about the wisdom of that strategy.

Who was the attorney? Did you ask the attorney? Who called to explain? Why not? Call me for further explanation. I have 24/7 availability.

Jules N. Fiani

Attorney at Law

586-457-5501