Interviewer: What did you learn about people’s behavior and the reaction to being arrested and prosecuted for a crime?What sort of human insight have you gained into the whole process?
Randy Berman: The state of mind is one of fear, total stress, worry and those emotions don’t allow you to think rationally or positively for yourself. You just have to remember that if you’re arrested, remain silent, be polite to the officer, let the process takes its course and you wait to do your fighting through your lawyer not right there on the spot. When you’re arrested you’re generally going to be taken to a jail facility. They’re going to go through the booking process with the picture and fingerprints. Ultimately you’ll either be held in a holding cell or you might be transported to one of the regular cells in the jail.
Bail is usually set within 24 Hours of the Arrest
After the arrest, you’re entitled to a hearing within 24 hours before a judge. Assuming you’re arrested at night, the following morning you’ll be going to court. The judge will review the police officer’s initial report and bail will be set. Now sometimes bail is set immediately per schedule. They already have preset bail amounts. Once you’re booked, if you contact the bondsmen and have funds to pay the bondsmen, you can get out the same day that you go in.
Bondsmen Charge 10% of the total Bail Amount
When you’re alleged to have committed a more serious crime, sometimes there is no bail and you have to go before the judge the following morning. Here is a tip for people who don’t have any prior record. Even though there is a scheduled bail that you could post right away, if you’re willing to hold out and go before the judge, many times except for serious crimes, you can be released on your own recognizance. Meaning you don’t have to post any money and you can save yourself the fee that you’d pay the bondsman who gets 10%. If it’s a $10,000 bond, you’d be giving the bondsman one thousand dollars.
If you hold off and wait to try to get the bond reduced, you save the fee to the bondsman by just waiting less than 24 hours to go before the judge. That’s something that you might consider because you probably would prefer spending any money you have to for your lawyer and not your bondsman who will not return the fee.
Public Disclosure of Criminal Charges
Interviewer: When someone is arrested, how public is their situation going to be?
Randy Berman: Publicity of an arrest initially comes from the police.If you ask them to contact someone for you obviously they’re going to find out what happened but the police won’t actively contact your employer or your parents or your wife unless you ask them to. However because so many internet companies run people’s arrest information online, the information does get out that way.Locally here in Palm Beach County the Palm Beach Post has a running site that’s attached to the sheriff department’s booking blotter where they publish every person that’s getting booked into the county jail. Some people like to watch this site it’s an entertainment for them.
There are certain Scenarios in Which Public Disclosure cannot be avoided
Also depending on the nature of the crime if it’s news worthy there is a going to be a story about it in the paper or police digest area.If it’s more sensational then there would be a full headline. Those are the ways your arrest is found out. If the police come and arrest you at home, neighbors are going to probably hear or see the police. Likewise if you’re arrested at your job, everybody at the job is going to see you being arrested. Those types of scenarios you can’t avoid the situation being known.