A Warrant Is Issued by a Judge and Is Executed by Police Officers

Interviewer: How long does it take a police officer to get a warrant?

Michael Golub: It depends I mean are you talking about searching a house or – what – typically, when houses are searched, they’re going to – there’s going to be some sort of ongoing investigation. And usually, it’s, say, a drug type of situation where they have undercover people going and making controlled buys from the residents or confidential informants making controlled buys and at the point in time where they have enough evidence and they can charge the person, then, there’ll be a search warrant, they’ll do an affidavit and that’s basically taken to a judge and then, the judge has to issue that and then, they go and execute it. So, typically, that does not take too long once they get it all together, typically it’s not something that they’ll have hearing on it, typically they go in and they find that whoever that judge is, he’s on duty, they’ll represent the affidavit, the judge signs a warrant. Typically, it doesn’t take a whole lot of time to do it and there’s a judge on duty all the time.

If A Defense Attorney Has Been Retained, He Or She Can Enter A Written Appearance At An Arraignment

Interviewer: What are some exceptions in which a client would have to extend the arraignment?

Michael Golub: You can always waive an arraignment. I don’t think I’ve ever had a time when somebody would have to actually delay an arraignment. If you don’t have a lawyer, you have to show up but if you have an attorney, the attorney can enter a written appearance for you.

It Is Inadvisable To Plead Guilty And Expect Mercy From The Court

Interviewer: What happen if an individual say “Hey, well, I was caught and I pleaded guilty”, should they just feel themselves at the mercy of the court?

Michael Golub: No, not at all. A lot of times a person is guilty of something that may not be what they’re actually charged with and the sentence the court may impose upon, that may not match the crime. In the instance for that person why would, they get attorney anyway? But what normally, it’s – still we need to look at the evidence and we need to negotiate on it. There’s a wide range of things that can happen to somebody, like I said you can go on probation and you can go to jail for several years, you know, and so just that you’re guilty of something, that doesn’t mean that you should be going to jail. It’s best to try to negotiate something upfront. You should know what’s going to happen before you enter a plea.

There Is No Typical Demographic For Drug Cases In Florida

Interviewer: Along the lines of drug cases, is there a typical demographic for that?

Michael Golub: Not really. Age-wise, yes, I mean age-wise, you don’t see a whole bunch of people. And normally, there’re, people under say 30 or 40 most cases but I mean it’s not limited to that in terms of a whole demographic I mean there are different crimes. It could be anybody at anytime, I mean so yes.

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