Through my various Attorney Sam Take blogs, I have tried to inform you of the realities of the criminal justice system. For the most part, I have concentrated on the participants, policies and statute involved. You should know, however, that what those participants do, and how criminal statutes are enforced, have changed over recent years due to technology.
We have discussed that modern technology has made it easier for law enforcement to share information regarding crimes and the people who allegedly commit them. As a case is pending, a person’s CORI is updated and so outside agency’s can access the information. Further, when someone is convicted of a crime, that conviction is also reflected in the CORI. Through the computers, it is easier for that information to haunt you.
Likewise, if you are convicted of an offense which can effect your driver’s license, the Registry of Motor Vehciles is notified through the same system and so takes whatever action it decides to make.
However, it does not end there.
I am often contacted by people who decided at some point not to join in the festivities of their court dates at some point. Sometimes, they stay local and hope to fade into the wood work. Often, they leave the Commonwealth, or even the country, in expectatuion that the court has bigger fish to fry than them and so will simply dismiss the case. They are wrong.
While there may be bigger fish…the criminal justice hook in you remains.
When you do not appear for a court date, a default warrant is issued in your name. This is an arrest warrant which, at some point, will come back to haunt you. Maybe the police will come a-knockin’ at the worst possible time. Sometimes you will be stopped for some motor vehcile infraction and then the warrant comes up and you find yourself arrested and brought back to court.
The same is true if you try to get or renew a driver’s license. Whether you are in the Commonwealth or in another state, the Massachusetts outstanding warrant is likely to come up and you will, at the very least, be denied the license.
Most people understand that this will happen if they stay local. They seem to think that, by leaving the state, the defeault warrant cannot touch them.
Again, this is a misconception.
Continue reading