Not a federal case
I couldn't afford a real attorney
In case still unclear, poor != brave
So it was not a Federal felony case and you were too poor to afford an attorney. Therefore you had no assets worth seizing. You were not charged with a paperwork "crime" where civil asset forfeiture attached and did not have all your personal and corporate property seized in a separate civil asset forfeiture case. You were not the target of a case centered on taking assets because you had none. You were not charged as and treated as a terrorist under the patriot act.
Therefore my original comment was correct: you have not faced anything like my situation.
The day I was arrested they did not have to and would not tell me why I was being arrested because I was arrested under a sealed arrest warrant under the anti-terrorism AML part of the patriot act. They did tell me they were going to search my house and sent 22 cars full of agents to my house to execute an all day search. When I asked them what they were searching for they told me they did not have to tell me what they were searching for because they had a sealed search warrant. Since they did not find what they were looking for at my home they asked for and were granted a separate sealed search for my corporate offices over the phone that day.
After 24 hours in Denver county jail I was brought before the judge and was finally told what I was charged with and why I was arrested (18-1960 operating a MTB without a license). So did you spend 24 hours in jail not knowing why you were there? Did you spend 12 hours just in the intake room because the jailers could not figure out why you were there and could not admit you into the jail until they figured out why you were arrested?
This brings me to the point you raised about poor != brave. I agree with you. You have a very good point. When I was brought in front of the judge after spending 24 hours in jail I was not the only one there for processing that day. There were about 20 or so people in the box that had been arrested on federal charges (mostly drugs and some weapons charges).
The judge started with the first guy on the list and here is how the entire interaction went with everyone except me:
Judge: You are charged with X, do you have representation?
Prisoner: No.
Judge: The prisoner is declared indigent, we will find you an attorney, go back to jail until we do. Next.
Out of the 20 people arrested that day I was the only one with representation. My interaction went something like this:
Judge: You are charged with 18-1960, operating a money transmittal business without a license (I was finally told why I was arrested!) do you have representation?
Me: Yes. (My wife had cached in our IRAs in order to raise the $50,000 retainer in the 24 hours since my arrest).
Judge: (looks totally baffled, taken aback, like this has never happened before and he does not know what to do next) Uh, well, uh OK, move over to this table then.
I am taken out of the box with all the other prisoners and am moved to the table with my lawyer. He shows me a piece of paper which shows the charges against me - first time I had seen it.
My attorney: we would like to discuss bail, Mr. Wagner is ...
Judge cuts him off: Ms. Korver (the prosecutor) What is the state's desire?
Korver: The state requests the maximum time to allow us to find all his assets and make sure he does not hide any. Six days.
Judge: OK, prisoner will be held over until Monday and be scheduled to be brought back for a bond hearing. Next.
You are correct. Poor people are arrested in droves. I felt sorry for them for a lot of reasons but at that time my get wrenching realization, having spent just
one night in jail, was that all those people, and many more before them and many more after them, were going to have to go back to jail until they found an attorney for them and as we all know that could take days. Days in jail just waiting to get an attorney assigned and get the process
started.
I felt very blessed to have savings, a wife that was able to back me up while I was in jail, a bank that was able to get the IRA cashed out in that short of a time period and on and on. If fact this entire experience has taught me just how blessed I am and had made me more grateful than ever for my friends and family.
I'm pretty shocked to see some of the comments in this thread. BurtW has nothing to prove here, and those of you attacking him should be ashamed of yourselves for attacking a victim.
Greg,
This guy does not bother me at all, just an amateur troll probably increasing his post count so he can sell the account. He is a great foil for the discussion and is very supportive in avidly bumping my thread for me so all is good.
I really appreciate your support. You are one of the people here that I respect the most so your post really meant a lot to me.
Thanks.