Bench Warrant

A

Aniket19

Registered Users (C)
Bench Warrant was issued on 2nd week of June, 2001 for my arrest because of my failure to appear before judge on June 1, 2001. The court scheduled a hearing on that day to address my unintentional failure to appear for jury duty.
I had never received notice of June 1 hearing or the jury notice apparently because both were sent to my former address. I moved from that address in November 1999.

I first became aware of this matter only when I received phone call from another former tenant. In short...... I talked to attorney (he works at same law firm where I work, he is not an immigration attorney) as soon as I found out about bench warrant and he wrote the letter to judge on behalf of me, describing that I in no way attempted to evade jury service or to ignore the direction of the Court. Also I am not a United States citizen and would therefore be unable to serve. I also included my immgration status, copy of driving licence (with new address) etc..

The bench warrant was withdrawn (attorney called to court and confirmed) on same day but I never received anything in writing from court.

Today I asked same attorney and explained him that I don't have anything in writing and I am applying for citizenship so he called court again and they said that warrant was withdrawn on same day (in 2001) but we can't produce the print out.

I have all other paper work with me.

Do you think I need to mention this incident in my citizenship application? Please let me know your opinion. Thank you.
 
IMHO: You weren't eligible for the jury duty in the first place. Collect as much paperwork as you can about the matter; affidavit from your former neighbor that alerted you about the issue, all the paperwork from the lawyer-friend, everything you can get your hands on and submit it with your application. You should be OK.

Cheers.
 
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Aniket19 said:
Bench Warrant was issued on 2nd week of June, 2001 for my arrest because of my failure to appear before judge on June 1, 2001. The court scheduled a hearing on that day to address my unintentional failure to appear for jury duty.
I had never received notice of June 1 hearing or the jury notice apparently because both were sent to my former address. I moved from that address in November 1999.

I first became aware of this matter only when I received phone call from another former tenant. In short...... I talked to attorney (he works at same law firm where I work, he is not an immigration attorney) as soon as I found out about bench warrant and he wrote the letter to judge on behalf of me, describing that I in no way attempted to evade jury service or to ignore the direction of the Court. Also I am not a United States citizen and would therefore be unable to serve. I also included my immgration status, copy of driving licence (with new address) etc..

The bench warrant was withdrawn (attorney called to court and confirmed) on same day but I never received anything in writing from court.

Today I asked same attorney and explained him that I don't have anything in writing and I am applying for citizenship so he called court again and they said that warrant was withdrawn on same day (in 2001) but we can't produce the print out.

I have all other paper work with me.

Do you think I need to mention this incident in my citizenship application? Please let me know your opinion. Thank you.
Click to expand...

If the court would have done their job, even though you had to produce evidence to the contrary, the aberration of law would have never taken place and therefore as it came out it also disappeared. It never existed.

Imagine, you could have been arrested, as a foreigner, you state you never received the letter, you proved you moved, what happens? Do you file a lawsuit ? Against a judge? These are the real aberrations that happen to many people in this country. We are just very lucky that we can fix a situation like this in the US.-
 
A bench warrant is a command to arrest someone who failed to appear in court. Since you were never arrested , convicted or cited you wouldn't need to disclose it on application. IMO, it's an non-issue since you never had a duty to appear for jury duty in the first place since you are a non citizen.

This is different from a bench warrant for someone who was previously cited for a traffic ticket and failed to appear in court. In this case, the applicant was originally cited and thus would need to disclose it on application.
 
Homo.Erectus said:
IMHO: You weren't eligible for the jury duty in the first place. Collect as much paperwork as you can about the matter; affidavit from your former neighbor that alerted you about the issue, all the paperwork from the lawyer-friend, everything you can get your hands on and submit it with your application. You should be OK.

Cheers.
Click to expand...

Collect the paperwork, but do not submit it with the application. Submit only the paperwork that is required. Attaching it to the application may cause un-necessary confusion. Take the paperwork with you to the interview, and offer to show it only if asked.

You were never arrested, never charged, or given a ticket (citation). You do not need to disclose this on the interview. It may show up when they perform a name-check....and if the IO asks for an explaination...then you show the paperwork you collected. Copies of paperwork from your lawyer should be sufficient.
 
Bobsmyth said:
A bench warrant is a command to arrest someone who failed to appear in court. Since you were never arrested , convicted or cited you wouldn't need to disclose it on application. IMO, it's an non-issue since you never had a duty to appear for jury duty in the first place since you are a non citizen.
Click to expand...


What about the question: "Have you commited an offense for which
you were not areested?".
 
WBH said:
What about the question: "Have you commited an offense for which
you were not areested?".
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He hasn't committed an offense, as it is very clear that a non-citizen can't be a juror. The ones committing an offense are the courts and the police, not Aniket19.
 
WBH said:
What about the question: "Have you commited an offense for which
you were not areested?".
Click to expand...

You can only commit an offense if you have broken a rule. Since the OP wasn't required to be called for jury duty in the first place, he hasn't broken any rules.
 
Bobsmyth said:
You can only commit an offense if you have broken a rule. Since the OP wasn't required to be called for jury duty in the first place, he hasn't broken any rules.
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But laws required anyoen to reply to a juror selection letters.
Even if you are a noncitizen, you are required to check "No" in
the citizen Yes/No Box on the jury selection form and send it back.

If you ignore it, you violate law and commit an offense. The OP
defense is he moved and did not receive the letter not that he
is not required or not eligible to be called for jury duty.

Actually if you carefully read the OP's first post, you'll find the OP's case is like this

(1) A letter is sent to him to call him for jury duty
(2) He did not respond
(3) So a hearing is scheduled for him, but he did not go.
(4) now a warrant is issued for (3) not for(1).

So there are two offenses here. One is above (1) and the other is above (3). The warrant now is for (3)

His defense should be he moved so he neither received the jury summon letter (1) nor received a summon for his appearance for
hearing about his not replying to teh jury summon
 
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Mr Vertigo said:
He hasn't committed an offense, as it is very clear that a non-citizen can't be a juror.
Click to expand...

But law requires a noncitizen to reply to a jury selection letter. You check
No on the citizen Yes/No box and send the form back. Or you even can
call court explaining you are not a citizen so you can not be a juror even if you want to.

Not responding is an offense.

I don't think the OP commited an offense but he reason is not that he was not eligible for jury duty. The reason is that he moved so he di not receiv the notice. If he had recieed the notice and did not do anything, then he would have commited an offense.

It is wise to always notice DMV of change of your addresss. They select Juror candidates randomily from voter registeration record,
vehicle registration record and driver license record. If you update in a timely order, you will minimize the chance of missing such important
notice you are required by law to respond, not to mention strictly speaking it is required by law to notice DMV of your address change.

I believe next year it is census time. It is a federal offense (even I heard it is a very serious crim eon paper) to ignore an census questionaire
though never heard any one ever get prosecuited by throwing it away
 
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So let me get this straight. Say you get an OCI and go away from US for say year and you get a Jury letter at your mail box while you are away -- then you are just screwed?

What should a US citizen do if one decided to leave US for a few years?
 
nitin_swami said:
So let me get this straight. Say you get an OCI and go away from US for say year and you get a Jury letter at your mail box while you are away -- then you are just screwed?

What should a US citizen do if one decided to leave US for a few years?
Click to expand...

You can always decline for extenuating circumstances(being out of country).
 
>>>>Bench Warrant was issued on 2nd week of June, 2001 for my arrest because of my failure to appear before judge on June 1, 2001. The court scheduled a hearing on that day to address my unintentional failure to appear for jury duty.
I had never received notice of June 1 hearing or the jury notice apparently because both were sent to my former address. I moved from that address in November 1999. <<<

Is this for real?? So say you have moved (say to India) and you get a Jury Duty Notice at your mail box which you obviously will not get to read -- will that result in a bench warrant for failing to appear in court??..while you are blissfully living in India. SO when you enter the country theres a bench warrant out for you??????????????????

Please tell me this is not true and is some type of a mistake!!!!!!!
 
nitin_swami said:
>>>>Bench Warrant was issued on 2nd week of June, 2001 for my arrest because of my failure to appear before judge on June 1, 2001. The court scheduled a hearing on that day to address my unintentional failure to appear for jury duty.
I had never received notice of June 1 hearing or the jury notice apparently because both were sent to my former address. I moved from that address in November 1999. <<<

Is this for real?? So say you have moved (say to India) and you get a Jury Duty Notice at your mail box which you obviously will not get to read -- will that result in a bench warrant for failing to appear in court??..while you are blissfully living in India. SO when you enter the country theres a bench warrant out for you??????????????????

Please tell me this is not true and is some type of a mistake!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

This is true my friend, And it happened to me.Thank god I still have copies that I can prove that I was moved when jury notice and Hearing notice were sent to me at my old address.

Again thank you guys for your help and support. I am planning to submit my citizenship application this coming week and instead of mentioning this issue on application, I will just take all the paper work with me at interview unless USCIS ask me before. Thank you all .
 
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nitin_swami said:
What should a US citizen do if one decided to leave US for a few years?
Click to expand...

Update your address in your driver license record and vehicle registration with DMV (a simple phone call will do that). Don't worry about they take away your driver license if you move out of the sate for one year. They allow you to have a driver license even if you move out of teh state especially temporarily.

They usually select juror candidates from driver license record and vehicle registration and voter's registration.
 
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