Charged With Marijuana Trafficking

My question involves criminal law for the state of:Pennsylvania. I had a search warrant for pot 3 years ago. Found no drugs accept for 6 extacy pills that my friend confessed to owning and not of my knowledge. 2 of my scales, a legal handgun and a bullet proof vest.

My main question at this time is it finally took them 3 years to start this process which i have still have not gone to court yet but being so much time has passed, nothing as far as charges were even given to me by my knowledge.. Would 3 years of living a normal life be a positive thing after all this time of nothing or bc i now have a court date it means charges?

I kept being told by numerous people that if it was bad i would of gone through any process along time ago!?

You were sent a notice to appear in Court? If so, what else does the paperwork or notice say.

At this time i have not received a letter. I was called by my lawyers secretary to inform me of the court date and she was going to mail me a letter. (Im assuming its to give me the same info that she told me) my file had no other paper work but i am waiting to hear from my lawyer soon hopefully. I was just curious at this time about the years involved with absolutely nothing happening.. My lawyer checked my background periodically and had no pending charges, no info from the detective or absolutely anything since the day of the search at my apt. This is literally 3 years and 15 days later and all i know at this point is just a court date which this will be the 1st of anything.

the fact that you had a gun and a vest makes the odds of the prosecution just dropping the matter somewhat less than zero.

Ok. That is of items that was taken aside from the 6 e pills n scales etc. What would change if they found messages on my phone? I.e. Old txt messages? Or in short.. What would a judge possibly tell me if all they had on everything was my phone record? Could unlawful use of a communication device be fatal to me? They came found nothing in my home or in possession but i know my phone of all things can be the culprite? Does that change anything? It probably will idk just asking.

All they really need is a judge to sign off on a warrant to search your cell phone records.

The scales...they speak for themselves.

If you have a court date in criminal court, and you know it to be from the drug possession incident, you need to talk to your lawyer.

They have probably had you under surveillance the entire time.

Unless he's been running a significant drug operation over the past three years, the odds of that would be roughly zero percent.

I would say that my "surveillance" started and ended within a year tops. Ik that much bc of what ik (too much to type) but thats just on "surveillance". As far as the court date.. Its a preliminary court date, not the actual criminal court date. I will definitely know my "charges" if i do or don't tomorrow from the message i received today. I will definitely post what happened when i find something hopefully tomorrow. I have the court date on feb 11th. Would my lawyer already have the charges known or would they be present to me the day of the preliminary if there are any? Im just so lost on the time it took for it to even start...!?

P.s. If n lets say i was under "surveillance" for a year... Can they go back further and use any info before any "surveillance" started or only the time it started going fwd? Ik im asking allot and ik no1 here can change my course, just trying to wrap my head around all possibilities of any and everything that can happen. Sigh i guess ill hopefully find something out tomorrow... (Especially after 3 years of this)

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*UpDate* I will not know anything until the 11th court date (preliminary) so im back in limbo for another 2 weeks *sigh*

They can use whatever evidence they have collected that would suggest your involvement in criminal activity.

*2nd update* Lawyer called. Said theres nothing new since day one and that hes "trying to keep it that way". I dont know what that could mean... is that lawyer lingo to nothing is goning to happen? lofl man this really isnt funny tho... im stressed.

That's a question you need to pose to your lawyer.

I asked, he said that theres nothing new added to my file which in turn nvr had anything in it accept my search warrent and items they took. Would a lawyer have the right, by law or could know of the charges before a preliminary if there are any or we would only know if i do or dont only there?

I found this information about arraignments..

“Arraignment must occur within a reasonable time after arrest. An unreasonable delay violates the defendant’s federal constitutional sixth amendment right to a speedy trial. If a criminal complaint, information or indictment is issued and the prosecutor’s office or the court does not schedule the case for arraignment until months or years later, the defendant’s attorney can ask that the case be dismissed because of the delay. The judge must review the circumstances of the delay and determine whether the delay was unreasonable.”

The part I am focused on first is it says “Arraignment must occur within a reasonable time after arrest”. Well I was “arrested on 01/12/2012”

Then it says “If a criminal complaint, information or indictment is issued and the prosecutor’s office or the court does not schedule the case for arraignment until months or years later, the defendant’s attorney can ask that the case be dismissed because of the delay.”
Which now my court date is 02/11/2015..

My question is what am I supposed to be or my lawyer look at!? The date of arrest for the speedy trial or whenever the paper work was pushed through for the court date I now have? I don’t know if it’s a double standard or I don’t fully understand that definition of an arraignment and the speedy trial part?

I am sorry, but your posts are difficult for me to follow.

If you have an attorney you should be speaking to him/her about the speedy trial issue.

Most arraignments occur within a few days of an arrest. Each state is different but during the arraignment you would have been read what you are being charged with, bond set, an opportunity to post said bond allowed, conditions of your bond explained and sometimes an affidavit for a public defender is filled out.

If you already have an attorney I am assuming you have been arraigned on the charges and it is just now that you have been indicted and you have a hearing set.

I apologize for the confusing posts. To sum it up, i was arrested back in 01/12/2012. For 3 years and change i had no charges filed against me or any court appearances. I now have an arraignment date for 2/11/2015. I read online that an arraignment had a procedure and it read "Arraignment must occur within a reasonable time after arrest. An unreasonable delay violates the defendant’s federal constitutional sixth amendment right to a speedy trial."

So i wanted to know if 3 years was "unreasonable" according to the time frame of when an arraignment is supposed to start?

And if it is "unreasonable", can that help me beat the case in its entirety?

Quote:

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Quoting U-Turn

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Well I was “arrested on 01/12/2012”

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How were you released from this arrest? Did you have to post bail/bond, did you get released OR, did the charges get dropped?

You may have been arrested for something like possession of paraphernalia and then the DA decided to drop that and monitor you for something bigger. So after all this time they feel they have a case for something bigger so they start the ball rolling on that. Since it is a separate charge that is not related to your arrest years ago, there is no issue with a timeline.

I suspect the speedy arraignment statute is more aimed at someone who has been arrested and not released, they can't just arrest you and hold you without charges forever(unless they send you to Guantanamo...).

To answer the 1st question, the detective himself dropped both my friend and i back home himself. No bail or bond or deals or anything. (Can i be released on ror by the detective himself?) He never told me i had charges or had any paperwork that pertained to any charges. Last thing he verbally told me was "we can work something out" as i entered my home.

I see what you mean about being arrested and holding for arraignment timeline..

The only thing i can think of that took so long was old txt messages or something through my old cell bc for 3 years i know they didn't catch me doing anything physically or pictures etc.. Work n home n a normal life i lived after the police raid or i would of been arrested again right or not true?

No, the detective does not get to set the bond for a criminal charge. If anything it sounds like you were detained and interviewed then returned home. For the last 3 years they may have been piecing together their entire investigation to which you were one piece. They may have now finished their investigation and have gone ahead and indicted you.

What makes no sense to me is the attorney you refer to, is this an attorney you hired yourself or is this someone the court appointed.

Hired personally. Him like his office was baffled as to why time went by and recieved nothing or knew anything. Unless he was down playing it to me or was already in the works with them all this time i do not know. Only thing that was ever in my file was what i gave him which was the search warrent and the seized items..