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State Criminal System Preliminary Hearing
State Criminal System Preliminary Hearing | Preliminary Hearing Or Grand Jury |
At the initial appearance, the judge set a date for a preliminary
hearing and decided your bail or release conditions. If you were
released from custody at the initial appearance, the preliminary
hearing was set for about twenty (20) days; if you are held on a bond,
the preliminary hearing was scheduled for ten (10) days. Before any
felony case may be transferred to the Superior Court and a trial date
set, there must be a finding of "probable cause." This simply means
that the prosecutor, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, must
present some evidence that a crime was committed and that you committed
it. The term "some evidence" does not mean a trial. The preliminary
hearing is not a trial.There are two (2) different ways for the prosecutor to prove "probable cause" and move the case to Superior Court
In the alternative, the prosecutor can take criminal cases to the grand jury, which meets in secret. Neither the defendant nor his attorney, nor even the judge is there. Only the prosecutor, his witness(es), the nine (9) to sixteen (16) grand jurors and a court reporter. Once the grand jury meets on a case and returns an indictment, there will be no preliminary hearing. The next court date, then, would be an arraignment... Contact Vladimir Gagic at his Phoenix or Scottsdale offices today. |
