Table of
Contents
What is arraignment
Hiring a Criminal Defense Lawyer
How Long from Arrest to Arraignment
Where will the Arraignment Occur
What to expect at the Arraignment
How you can help
Bail
Queens County Plea Policy
What is Arraignment?
Someone you know has just
been arrested in Queens. You want to know what happens next.
The next step in the criminal process in Queens is the Arraignment The
arraignment is the first appearance before a judge and marks the first
step (in Court) for a criminal case.
At the arraignment a judge
will decide whether to release a defendant simply on his promise to come
back to court to answer the charges OR a judge will set an amount of
bail that will have to be posted before the defendant could be released.
The arraignment is NOT a
trial. The arraignment is NOT a hearing. The arraignment is NOT a
fact-finding mission. There will be NO WITNESSES. There will be NO
EVIDENCE taken. This is often extremely frustrating, especially for those
who believe their loved ones were arrested wrongly. The temptation
is to want to shout from the rooftops proclaiming the innocence
of the person arrested, and the expectation is that the judge
will be in a position to listen to evidence and rule upon the
merits of the case. Unfortunately, for a variety of
practical and legal reasons, the arraignment is not generally
the appropriate forum for a formal fact-finding. The
arraignment has a much more limited purpose. Arraignment
is really mostly about the issue of bail.
Return
to Top
Should
I hire an attorney for the Arraignment?
Yes, if you have the
opportunity. Your
first step ought to be to hire an attorney for the arraignment. Some
people have a "wait and see what happens" approach to hiring
an attorney. The arraignment is a critical appearance, however.
Depending on how the
arraignment goes, the defendant could be forced to remain in jail until
the case is resolved OR the defendant may be released while the case
proceeds. If you have a lawyer you can trust, why wouldn't you want that
lawyer involved in the first and one of the most important decisions
of the case?
Don't worry about the time
of day or night. Most criminal defense attorneys are equipped to deal
with emergency calls.
Remember that the
arraignment won't happen for about 24 hours after the person is
arrested. Therefore, that should leave plenty
of time to get in contact with an attorney.
If you don't already have
an attorney you can call
us at 718-268-2171.
Return
to Top
When
will the Arraignment Take Place?
As a general rule of thumb
in Queens County (as well as the rest of New York City), it takes about 24 hours from the time of arrest to the
arraignment. Very rarely people arrested in the early morning will come
through arraignments late that night. Usually, however, it is pretty
close to 24 hours. Queens arraignments
are not open 24 hours a day. Arraignments stop around 1:00 AM and don't
resume until about 9:30AM.
Return
to Top
Where
will the Arraignment Take Place?
In Queens County, the
arraignment will take place at the Courthouse located at 125-01 Queens
Blvd. in Part AR1 (M-F 9-5), AR3 (EVERY NIGHT 5-1), or AR4 (SAT, SUN
9-5). They are all three the EXACT SAME COURTROOM located on the ground
floor of the newest part of the building called the Annex.
The only reason the names
are different is to distinguish among day court (AR1), night court
(AR3), and weekend/holiday court (AR4).
During regular business
hours you must enter the courthouse through the main entry on the first
floor and make your way down to the arraignment part (go right to the
annex elevators and go to the G level).
At night and on weekends
you must use the special entrance on the bottom of the Annex located
down and to the right of the main entrance on Queens Blvd.
Return
to Top
What
can I expect at Arraignments?
Arraignments in Queens is
a remarkable place. To the untrained eye, it probably seems (on a busy
day) like a boiling mass of rapid fire shouting and confusion.
Understand however, that most of the people involved, judges, court
officers, police, lawyers, clerks, etc. have done thousands of
arraignments. Everyone involved is keenly aware of what is happening and
why.
But like anything else,
newcomers need a guide. If you want to see what the arraignment
courtroom looks like, who stands where, and read about each person's
role, go to our Interactive
Arraignment Guide for Queens County. If you'd rather skip the
graphic and go right to the text click
here.
Return
to Top
What
can I do for my friend or loved one who was arrested at the Arraignment?
If you don't have
time to get a lawyer to manage the arraignment process for you,
you may find yourself having to do what you can yourself.
Here are some tips for what you can do to help out.
Outside the arraignment
courtroom you will find a list of names. You will know that your loved
one is about to come through when you find his name on the list. If you
don't see his name on the list, then he probably isn't ready yet.
If you see his name on the
list, write down the Docket Number you will find on the same line as his
name. The Docket Number is the number that looks something like this:
2006QN000000. That number may come in handy.
After you write down the
docket number, go into the courtroom and get the attention of one of the
court officers. The Court
Officers are the ones wearing Blue shirts like the police, but they
have patches on their arms identifying them as court officers. Be quiet and polite when
you try to get their attention. They may ask you to wait or sit down for
a moment if they are unable to help you immediately. Do as they ask of
you. Court
Officers can be extremely helpful to you.
Once you have the
attention of a court officer, let him know that you are here for someone
and would like to speak to the public defender who will be representing him
for the arraignment. If a private criminal defense lawyer
does not appear for someone, one of the public defenders working
the arraignment courtroom will handle the arraignment. Make
sure the name is ON THE LIST before you approach the Court Officer.
Otherwise you will likely be wasting his and your time. Most Court
Officers will notify the attorneys in the back that family/friends are
here for a particular defendant.
Once informed that
family members or friends are in the audience, the public
defender may ask to speak to
you outside the courtroom before the arraignment.
The lawyer will likely
introduce himself, and will want to know the relationship between the
defendant and those who have appeared. Sometimes, the lawyer may ask for
information related directly to the case. Other times, the lawyer may
simply verify some personal information about the defendant.
Remember to ask
the public defender for a business card so that when you do
contact a private lawyer, the private lawyer will know who
handled the arraignment.
Please understand that the
lawyer is preparing to do an arraignment, NOT A TRIAL. The goal of an
arraignment is usually to try to obtain the release of the defendant or
an amount of bail that friends and family could make. In some cases, the
lawyer will believe that release is very likely and that a lengthy
discussion is not needed. In other cases, the lawyer may believe that
release is extremely Unlikely and that a lengthy discussion is not
needed.
Return
to Top
Should
I bring bail money to Arraignments?
Yes, if you can. You never
know what may happen.
In the past, the Court
Clerks in arraignment have been willing to accept bail posted
IMMEDIATELY (not ten minutes later) after the arraignment.
The advantage to posting
bail immediately in court is that you can get your loved one out almost
immediately. If you don't have it with you in Court at the moment of the
arraignment, it may cost your loved one a good few hours more in jail.
If you are unable
to post the cash bail set by the judge, then you should consider
the possibility of posting a bail bond. A licensed
New York bail bondsman
can be hired to post the amount of bond for you. The bail
bondsman will charge you a fee for this service, but it will be
considerably less than the full amount set by the judge.
One affordable, licensed New York Bail Bond Agency is
Affordable Bail Bonds. They can be reached by calling
888-932-2435.
Return
to Top
The
Queens District Attorney Plea Policy
During a Queens
arraignment, you may hear discussion about "the waiver" or the
"plea policy". You will see the Prosecutor hand the
defense attorney a document and in many cases you will see the defendant
sign this document. On the rare occasion when a defendant does not
sign "the waiver" you will notice that it creates a fuss.
Click
here to see a scanned copy of the Queens
District Attorney's Office Plea Policy.
Click
here to see an annotated version
of the policy with annotations by Don Murray, Esq.
In order to understand
what this "waiver" is and why it is important, you have to
understand a little about the Grand
Jury and how it works. Click
here to read about the Grand Jury.
In Queens, defendants who
do not agree to give the District Attorney's Office about thirty days
(as opposed to six days as the law normally requires) to get an indictment
against them are closed out of the plea bargaining process by the
District Attorney's Office.
Signing the waiver is NOT
an admission of guilt. Signing the waiver does NOT mean the
defendant has to take a plea. If, after plea bargaining, the
defendant is not satisfied with the offer, the defendant has the right
to do everything any other defendant could have done. The
defendant can still testify in the Grand
Jury and can still take the case to
trial.
The plea policy has not
always been in existence. The District Attorney in Queens started
the plea policy on the theory that defendants who will eventually take
pleas ought to be encouraged to take them earlier in the case.
From an unrealistic point
of view the choice should be simple. If you are guilty, sign and
deal. If you are not guilty don't sign and go
to trial. Case closed. Nice and neat.
If only reality were that
neat. The decision would be that simple if the truth
always won out in the end, jurors always did the right thing, judges
always did the right thing, and lawyers always did the right thing.
The fear of going to jail
for a long time on the whim of a misguided jury, however, is just one
compelling reason at least to see what the Prosecutor may offer on a
particular case.
From an attorney's point
of view it is next to impossible to advise a client on the strength of
his case based on an initial interview right before arraignment.
Without the benefit of investigations and what little discovery might be
available, an attorney is flying blind.
Further, many attorneys
believe that the policy unfairly forces a critical decision about a case
at a point in the process when the defendant is least in a position to
make such a decision. Most defendants have been up without rest
for 24 hours or more waiting for arraignment and are then required to
make a major decision about their case.
The decision to sign or
not to sign "the waiver" at arraignments, like the decision
whether or not to testify in the Grand
Jury, is one that must be made after discussion with an attorney.
Statistically, it seems that most defendants do sign the waiver.
But each case should be independently evaluated with an
experienced criminal defense attorney.
Return
to Top
