If you have been arrested for a probation violation in Gwinnett County, you may be arrested at the probation office or picked up by officers after a warrant has been issued for your arrest. Once your probation has been revoked you will remain in the Gwinnett County jail until you have the opportunity to have a probation revocation hearing.
Probation Revocation Hearing Your probation revocation hearing may come up quickly or may take a week or so to be heard. It depends on what day you are arrested or taken into custody for violating your probation. Your probation hearing will consist of essentially two parts. The first step is to determine whether or not you actually violated your probation. A common example that leads to probation revocation is for failing a drug or alcohol test. See this link for information on probation alcohol testing (LINK). If you fail a drug or alcohol test then you are entitled to an evidentiary hearing on the evidence and whether it is accurate or inaccurate. If you have been arrested for a crime, then you would be entitled to the same evidentiary hearing as to whether or not you actually committed a crime in violation of the terms of your probation. ***A key factor to determine at this point is whether or not it is beneficial to you to challenge the evidence that you have actually violated your probation. If you challenge the evidence, you will remain in jail until a further point when you have a hearing on the evidence as to whether or not you violated your probation. It is important for your attorney to contact your probation officer and determine what their recommendation is in your case. For example: If you were sentenced to two years probation on your original charges and your probation officer is recommending to "revoke the balance" then you may absolutely want to have a hearing on the evidence in your revocation case because you may serve the rest of your original sentence in jail if the Judge agrees with the probation officer and the prosecutor's side of the case. ***It is important to remember that while you are on any form of probation, that probation has the potential to be revoked. If you are found in violation of any terms of your probation, you may be sent to jail for all the remaining time that you were going to be on probation. If your attorney is able to negotiate an agreement with the prosecutor and the probation officer before your probation revocation hearing then it may be best to stipulate to the violation (admission that you did in fact violate your probation) so that you may potentially be released immediately or be required to serve as little time as possible in jail. Probation revocation hearings are usually very short so all of the work must be done by you or your attorney before the hearing. The Judge is the person who ultimately decides what to do in your case but it is crucial to have some sort of pre-hearing negotiation between all parties so that the best result can be obtained.
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AuthorBlog posts by Bill Hardman at Georgia DUI and Criminal Law Archives
April 2024
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