Legal Question in Criminal Law in Missouri

You may or may not be charged, but I would be surprised if you were not. It is possible that you were swept up in an investigation of other wrongdoing, and the police are after bigger players. However, you may still be charged and possibly asked to inform on others. Frequently I see persons arrested on misdemeanor possession charges, when the police really want to arrest a dealer on felony charges. They may try to use you to get to the bigger players. If so, you need not make any statements to them. Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss this further.

Sean Santoro/Licensed in KS and MO

At some point in time a criminal charge will be filed against you and a warrant will be issued for your arrest. The law enforcement authorities have no duty to warn you. Police may come to arrest you on the warrant at any time, or you may be arrested on the outstanding warrant if you are pulled over for a traffic violation or encounter the police in other situations. In cases such as yours I often advise people to make whatever preparations they can make to be ready for this unfortunate turn of events. First of all, make sure that you are not in possession of anything illegal. If the police find any contraband in your possession when they execute the warrant new criminal charges will follow. Second of all, you should consider putting a competent criminal defense lawyer on retainer so that you will have legal representation immediately when you need it. It will be a lot easier to hire a lawyer now than it will be after you are taken into custody. Your attorney can seek your release from custody upon your own recognizance in some situations or can seek a reduction of the bond required for your release and in other ways make a very unpleasant experience (being arrested) a lot easier for you. In some cases we are able to limit the time a person actually remains in custody to just a few hours. Then your attorney can do everything else needed to represent you on the criminal charge itself. I always advise my clients not to answer any questions or make any statements to the police at any time. Doing so can only hurt you. It can not help you. There are rare occassions where your "cooperation" with the police can bring benefits, but it is absolutely imperative that you "cooperate" only with the assitance of legal counsel. Please feel free to contact me at the office if I can be of any assistance to you. I have been handling criminal cases for defendants for over thirty-one years.