Arrestee Support

The main purpose of the first court date (arraignment) is to find out whether the District Attorney will file a case against you and what charges will be. The DA decides your official charges, not the cops who arrested you. The DA could decide not to charge you at all, they could give you different charges, or they could ‘not file’ the charges because they haven’t reviewed the police reports.

If they don’t file charges, it doesn’t mean that the case is dismissed; it means that the DA has up to one year to file misdemeanor charges or longer for felony charges. See #6 for what to do if they don’t file. In San Francisco it is rare for the prosecutor to charge a protest later if they did not file charges at the arraignment. It sometimes happens in Alameda county.

If they do file charges, and you are being represented by a National Lawyers Guild attorney, the attorney will most likely continue the arraignment to  a few weeks later. That will give you time to strategize about what to do next.

If you were released on a citation or on your own recognizance (O.R.) this probably will not change at your first appearance. If your were released on bail, the amount will probably stay the same. However, if DA adds new charges or files more serious ones than your arrest charges, the bail amount may change.

Recently due to COVID-19 many face to face court hearings are being cancelled. In Alameda county, the courts are closed through the end of June 2020. During that time all out of custody arraignments will be continued until after the court closure. If your case is rescheduled by the court they should mail a notice to the address you gave during citation or booking. You can also check the court’s website for future updates. Or you can call the public defender’s office and ask if you have a future court date: 510-268-7400.

During the court closure, in custody arraignments in Alameda are being held by video conference from jail.

If there is no lawyer present at your arraignment, you may ask for one before having to answer to the charges. In Alameda, if you are out of custody they will set a new court date for you to come back to court. If you are in custody they will continue the case to the next court day so you may be interviewed by the public defender before the arraignment.

Updated 06/09/2020

Remember that the charges the DA decides to bring against you may be different than what the police wrote on your citation. The types of charges we are dealing with can be broken down into four classes:

• Traffic violations/infractions: These are the lowest level of charges. The maximum penalty for these charges is paying a fine (you can’t go to jail for this level of charge). They are also defended in traffic court, where you have fewer rights. However, our attorneys have a lot of experience in successfully defending people with these charges.
• Low-level, non-violent misdemeanors: These charges could in theory result in jail time, yet they rarely do. They are also the least likely to be actually charged by the DA and the easiest for our attorneys to handle. Typical low-level misdemeanor charges we have seen include: PC 405 (Riot), 408 (Unlawful Assembly), 409 (Failure to Disperse), 602 (Trespassing), 602.1 (Interfering with a Business), 647(e) (Lodging), 647c (with the c not in parentheses – Obstruction), PC 369i (Blocking Trains), various Vehicle Code sections including 2800 (Disobeying an Officer) and having to do with entering the highway etc.
• More serious misdemeanors: These charges are serious enough that you will most likely want an individual attorney (as opposed to one attorney appearing for many similar cases at the same time). They could result in up to a year of jail time (although in these situations that is extremely rare). Common charges include: PC 148 (resisting arrest or delaying an officer), 242 or 243 (battery / assault), 594 (vandalism), 415 (disturbing the peace).
• Felony charges: These are the most serious charges, and they could result in a state prison sentence. You will definitely need your own, individual attorney to handle your case. You will know if you have been charged with a felony, as it makes getting released from custody much more difficult. If you or someone you know has been charged with a felony related to demonstrating, contact us right away!

We are doing our best to find NLG volunteer attorneys to represent folks arrested during Black Lives Matter protests in the Bay Area, at least up to your first appearance date. If you were arrested in a mass arrest situation (i.e. more than 10 people arrested together with the same low-level charges), it’s very likely we will have attorneys able to represent the entire group at your arraignment.

If you were arrested individually, or have more serious charges, we will do our best to find you an NLG attorney who can represent you individually.

In any case, if you want us to represent you, the most important thing to do is to make sure we have all your information! If you haven’t contacted us, or are unsure if we have all your details, please fill out this secure form.

If many people are charged individually or with more serious charges, our volunteer attorneys may not be able to cover all the cases. If that’s the case, you have three options:

• If you are low income, you may be eligible for a Public Defender or appointed counsel – attorneys paid by the state to defend low income people on criminal charges. The income amount to qualify varies. The PDs in Alameda County and San Francisco are overworked, but good attorneys, and have access to some resources not available to our attorneys. If you want a PD, you request one during your arraignment, at which point they will probably schedule another date.
• You can hire your own private attorney. The NLG doesn’t provide referrals, so you will have to find one on your own. One issue with some private attorneys is they may sometimes defend their clients by getting other individuals in trouble.
• You can also defend yourself (pro per). If you want to look into this option, it is strongly recommended that you give us a call so we can have an attorney discuss the implications of this.

Your right to remain silent includes your immigration and citizenship status. You may refuse to answer and questions about your citizenship status or for a social security number.

If you have no legal status in the United States, or if you over stayed a visa, a protest arrest may result in removal proceedings if discovered by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). They can place a 48 hour hold if they discover you in custody in a local jail. If ICE does not pick you up with the 48 hour period you may be release if you have already paid pail or are otherwise eligible to be release. Most Bay Area counties have a policy of not working with ICE for immigration enforcement in jails.

If you are not a U.S. citizen, a protest arrest may also affect your immigration status. Criminal convictions, sometimes even minor ones, may complicate a petition to change your status. Convictions for crimes of moral turpitude or aggravated felonies may make you removable or inadmissible. It is very important that you have competent legal advice on the potential immigration consequences of any proposed resolution of your case. Contact us and we’ll find someone you can talk to.

For more info on immigrant rights see the National Immigration Law Center.

Updated 06/09/20

In many of the Alameda County cases, the DA has not filed charges by the date set for arraignment because they have not yet received the police report or other info from the cops. Keep in mind that the DA has up to one year to file charges. In many of the San Francisco cases so far, the DA has decided NOT to file charges, but could charge you later if you are arrested again for a similar violation.

• In Alameda County, if they do decide to file criminal charges against you at a later point, the DA will send you a summons by mail, to the address you gave when cited out or bailed out. However, to make sure you don’t miss this notice, we recommend that you call the Alameda County DA’s number (510-268-7500) in a couple of weeks, and then once a month to find out if they have filed criminal charges against you.
• In San Francisco, if you have been told you are definitely not being charged, rather than that the case is still under investigation, there is no need to keep calling.)

DO NOT agree to go in and talk to the DA about your case! Doing so won’t help you. You have a Fifth Amendment right not to talk to the DA, police, or their investigators.

If you find out you are being charged, call the NLG Legal Hotline right away to let us know: 415-909-4654, if you would like criminal representation from the NLG. (Keep in mind that we may not be able to find volunteer attorneys for everyone, and that in some cases it may be a good idea to go with the Public Defender.)

Let us know! Do not respond to any of these notices without getting legal advice. There are several different things folks may be getting in the mail:

• A notice from the DA that prior charges are being filed – this means you will have a court date coming up
• A notice to pay a fine or set a court date in traffic court – this means your charges have been reduced to an infraction-level charge and that it will be handled by the traffic court. You, or an attorney, will need to schedule a court date.
• A notice referring your case to “community court”, “neighborhood court”, the “corrective intervention program”, or some other “alternative dispute resolution” – these are DA-run alternatives to the criminal court system. Because you have fewer rights in these programs, we have been advising demo arrestees not to participate.

Until you are arraigned, we won’t know what you are being charged with, or if you will be charged at all. Most cases will probably NOT be prosecuted at all. Once we are sure you are being charged, we can start strategizing about next steps for your legal defense. If you have evidence, make sure it is well-documented and keep it in a safe place until we are sure it will be needed.

Most likely, no. However, if you are arrested multiple times in the same county, the DA may consider that when deciding whether or not to charge you. If you have other restrictions based on prior arrests (probation/parole/stay away orders/fail to appears/warrants/etc) you may be held in jail and have other consequences.

If you are charged with a felony, your personal appearance is generally required at the arraignment. If you are charged with a misdemeanor, a lawyer may be able to appear without your presence at the arraignment. If you want assistance from the NLG, call the hotline to see if an NLG lawyer is available for you arraignment day. The lawyer may be able to appear without you if :

• You were arrested in a mass arrest situation .
• You are not charged with a felony.
• You have contacted us with all your information and told us that you can’t attend your court date

Updated 06/06/20

Many people are asking what can be done about police violence, false arrests and other police misconduct at the demonstrations. The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is collecting information about the misconduct by the various police agencies, and considering what legal and/or political action might be effective and feasible regarding civil rights violations.

If you have been subject to or witnessed police misconduct, please fill out an NLG police misconduct report (PDF | DOC), or simply send the NLG your contact information (see below.)  Please do not send videos or photos, but if you have video or photo evidence of police misconduct let us know and give us your contact info. You can send us forms or your contact info by emailing them to demonstrations@nlgsf.org , mailing them to the NLG Demo Committee at 558 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, or dropping them off in a sealed envelope addressed to NLG Demo Committee, in the outside mailbox at 558 Capp St (between 20th and 21st) in SF.

Please note that beginning a civil investigation (either through a lawsuit or through filing an official complaint with the Police Department or the Civilian Complaint Review Board) while people have open criminal cases can be a bad idea. However, it is very important to act quickly to preserve evidence that might be needed in a potential civil lawsuit, and there are strict deadlines for filing civil claims. It is best to discuss the timing, risks and benefits of initiating a civil action, and how to best preserve evidence, with an NLG or other lawyer who specializes in police misconduct and political cases, as soon as possible after the incident. This guide explains how to document your injuries, but is not a substitute for speaking with a lawyer.

Sharing Stories and Video

We encourage people to let the world know about police violence. However, it is important to review any information that is made public to ensure it does not contain details that could be used against people in their criminal cases. Feel free to post any footage or stories of what the police did, but please consider removing any details showing or describing your or others’ actions. The police monitor livestreams, YouTube, social media and political blogs and websites for intelligence that could help them prosecute activists. Even if it doesn’t seem important, careless material you post could get you or other people in trouble.