Skipping out on a court date is not unusual. Many defendants who fail to appear are nothing worse than agonized procrastinators, putting off their date with the judge as long as possible, unmindful of how their non-appearance may impact what ultimately happens to them.

The attorneys often are not surprised by their client's absence from court as scheduled. Typically, they just shrug and figure that they'll get a phone call from the jail when the bench warrant catches up with the client.

For the prosecutor, it can be a troublesome problem. All the case witnesses were on hold under subpoena for that date. Now the court will have to order the compulsion date of the subpoenas extended, or new ones issued and re-served by the sheriff. Witnesses cannot be kept on tap forever. They move away, disappear, die, forget. Delay almost always hurts the prosecution.

But even if a case is weakened by time due to problems such as this, often a new crime -- a very provable one -- can be brought to bear upon the delaying defendant: failure to appear itself.

One morning when a case was called and the defendant had not appeared in court as scheduled, his attorney decided to argue against the issuance of a warrant.

"My client is a sick man, Your Honor. I doubt that his failure to appear this morning is purposeful. He's a schizophrenic."

"Fine," said the perturbed judge. "Then I'll issue two bench warrants."

Comments:

comment by miker on May 1, 2008 5:17 PM ()

Fact & fiction commingle in my memory and so I find it appropriate to do the same in my writing. I leave it to the reader to figure out what's what.

reply by looserobes on May 1, 2008 5:45 PM ()

No excuses, huh?

In Israel the crooks sent me a summons to the wrong address, so they could say I refused it. Then, the judge would rule against me with a behind the back decision. When I did get proper service say for 10am, the judge would begin my case at 9am.
The Supreme Court told me to go home and rewrite my suit. Then, they wrote a behind my back decision to pay $2000 in court costs. There are actions pending in the European courts accusing many Israeli judges of crimes against humanity. Maybe, we can get them for failure to appear.
A US Embassy official mocked me. "Do you want us to send the Marines?"
"Hey! That's a great idea." I said.