 Contempt for Failure to Serve - Iowa |
| Drunk Driving / DUI / DWI |
State of Iowa.
Hello, I'm not sure if this is the right forum, my question is on a contempt charge for failure to serve on an OWI charge. My question is: what should I expect at my hearing? It is this Thursday. OWI 1st offense is a serious misdemeanor in the state of Iowa, the hearing is for the contempt charge.
Here are details about the case:
I pleaded guilty to OWI First Offense in March or April of 2007. I was ordered to serve 2 days in the county jail, pay a fine / court costs, obtain a substance abuse evaluation, complete a state approved course for drunk drivers by sometime late in 2007. I was not placed on probation.
I failed to comply with the court order, the only thing I complied with was receiving the evaluation by the time allotted and following up with the recommended treatment.
I misunderstood the sentence and was under the impression that the order only needed to be served before reinstating my driver's license.
I was laid off in 2007 due to the economy. I moved to a different county with my parents and have been working as a computer programmer since March of 2008.
A warrant was issued in 2007 for my arrest on the contempt charge for the failure to serve. I was not aware of this warrant until 2 weeks ago when I called the county jail in regards to coming in to serve my jail time. They informed me of the warrant and I turned myself in. I saw a judge the next morning, he ordered me to serve the previously imposed sentence and set a court date.
Prior to calling the county jail I had contacted the county treasurer's office and paid the originally sentenced fine, but was not yet aware of the contempt charge.
Last week I obtained another substance abuse evaluation as the original had expired after 90 days. The counselor recommended I attend 3-4 treatment sessions due to the previously recommended treatment. I attended 1 last Thursday evening and will be attending one this evening. I will also be enrolled in the course for drunk drivers this Friday and Saturday.
Let me know any thoughts or advice you have for me.
Thanks for taking the time to read this!
|
| Disorderly House, cedar rapids Iowa |
| Arrests, Searches, Warrants & Procedure |
I live in Cedar Rapids Iowa and last Saturday I had some good friends over, we ended up getting some alcohol and started to have a small party (me and maybe 6 other people) I'll state now that we all are underage. At the beginning of the night my friend clogged up the toilet when he used it, we figured it was no big deal because it wasn't overflowing at the time, so we wouldn't use it.
After a couple hours we all decide to go to bed (around 1am-2am). I wake up to the news that a cop and firefighters are in our apartment because the toilet that backed up was overflowing and leaking into the apartment below us. He said that he knocked on our door repeatedly and that they were going to break the door down, but it was unlocked. He walked in and woke my friend on the couch up by hitting him, then proceeded to harass (In my opinion) my friends by saying something along the lines of 'wake up retards!'. The name calling continued throughout the time he was there, even my neighbor thought he was going overboard with the name calling and she's the one that called them. He then wrote me a ticket for disorderly house and that we were having an underage drinking party. Considering we were not drinking at the time, and we were sleeping even, I don't believe that I was running a disorderly house, but I'm no lawyer. The officer did ask me if I had been drinking and I told him yes I have been. I figured if I lied to him I'd be in more trouble.
I was very cooperative with the officer the entire time and if I recall correctly the name calling kept going on.
I'm wondering if we can get these charges dropped because he walked into our apartment without consent or a warrant and verbally harassed my friends. I know I'll need a lawyer if I plan on pleading not guilty but I am curious if it will even be worth it to hire a lawyer.
I hear the fine can get up to $750.00 and I would not enjoy loosing the case with a lawyer and end up paying the fine plus the cost of the lawyer.
Any and all help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.
|
|
