Over 15 year old Texas Probation Violation and Extradition Question

[John88]

Hello,

I am new here and I'm not sure if this is the place to bring this up but I'll give it a try.

When I was in my late teens I was convicted in the state of Texas on a Drug Felony, 3rd Degree Poss. I was given 5 years probation and drug treatment and sent back to my home state where my probation was transferred. I was still addicted to drugs and my state didn't really supervise me and I fell way behind my payments. After about 1 1/2 years of probation without any violations other than a few missed monthly letters to my Texas probation officer my state's probation officer called me and told me I was doing so well not getting in trouble that they were sending my case back to Texas and suggesting I be discharged from probation early.

Texas didn't like this one bit. I was behind in my fee's and since my state sent my case back to Texas they gave me a court date for a probation violation, not paying fee's and keeping in touch, I suppose. I told the officer I couldn't get back to Texas. I had been diagnosed with mental disabilities and unable to work and was collecting SSIP benifits from my state.

When I told them I couldn't make it. They told me they were going to file a petition to revoke my probation, I think. Then told me if I stepped foot in Texas again I'd be picked up.

In the following 5-6 years of continued drug use I was picked up on several charges that were all dropped except a misdemeanor assault charge with community service given and charges cleared afterwards and a DUI - which I did 3 years successfully on misdemeanor probation along with DUI school. Never once in the many times in my states Jails did the Warrant from Texas come up.

I checked the Texas county database of Warrants and my name is still there with the NCIC charge of Probation Violation. I'd like to take care of this but I have close to 10 years off of drugs without any police problems. I've even done volunteer services throughout Central America. In fact I am there now.

I have never been picked up at the border, of course never entering through Texas by land or Air. Since I can't work I work with my psychiatrist and social worker taking whats prescribed and they say volunteer work helps me in coping with my mental ilnesses. I am worried that someday crossing the border, Texas will have an extradition order to hold me awaiting me.

Can anyone tell me if it's possible the times I've been picked up on other charges the Warrant has shown up but it just has instruction "only pick up from Texas"? I know many states have instructions on the NCIC computer to only pick up from state of arrest. I'm hoping this is my case. It's only a minor probation violation.

I've talked with a Texas Lawyer and he has told me it's possible he could take care of it over the phone if I was willing to pay the Probation fee's I owed but no guarantees.

I really don't want to go turn myself in to Texas and take the chance of a prison sentence after being out of that lifestyle for so long. Plus I'm on so many psych meds I'm afraid to leave to long. As for my volunteer service with the money I get it takes me months to save enough for cheap tickets to get to Mexico and take buses into Central America but once there it's possible to get by on literally dollars a day. I know I should be using the money to pay a lawyer and any probation fee's needed but I really believe it was what helped me get clean. i can only make it once a year but maybe it would also work in my favor going in front of a judge if that became necessary showing all the good I've done versus the bad which was all done to myself by the way.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[yourself]

Did you have a PD the last time? Have you called the PD in the county to see if they can help you out? If you turned yourself in, you'd get the PD by what you're saying, so contacting the PD and seeing if you can get the ball rolling to fix the issue might be one way of dealing with it.

Either that, or start paying what you can on what you owe the state.

Or, contact that lawyer who said he'd take care of it, and see if he'll let you do a payment plan.

[CenTexLyn]

While it is certainly good that you have taken steps to get clean, I have seen revocations on 20-year old probation warrants (the oldest was a Tarrant County case)...some of which resulted in TDCJ time. I have also seen cases where the warrant was executed at the time of re-entry into the country (several 10-15 year old parole warrants). In some instances, a person MIGHT have a legitimate claim to be raised related to due diligence, but that is not something the individual can usually do on their own...and it generally is NOT going to be something the Court will even entertain until the individual is in custody.

As for why you haven't been picked up previously, it is possible that the warrant was never published in NCIC and was TCIC only just as it is equally possible that it was published NCIC but the agency could not physically place their hand on the warrant at the time that the teletype came through related to the hit or even that the network was down at the time you happened to have been arrested (they do take both TCIC and NCIC down for backup every night for a few hours. There are any number of other issues that could come into play.

Warrants related to violations of felony probation don't just go away. You are going to have to be proactive and do SOMETHING. You either need to make arrangements to come down and self-surrender to deal with it (something that many courts will actually take into account) or you will need to put the funds together to secure local counsel.

[John88]

@yourself

yes, I had a PD in Texas and he was a liar. I wouldn't trust him to walk my dog. I'd be willing to sit in Jail longer to switch PD's. The lawyer I called did mention he would take a payment plan. I think he wanted 500 to start work and 1000 before he finished but he said if it could be done over the phone Texas Probation Dep. would want it all their money in one lump sum.

@CenTexLyn

I realize felony probation warrants never go away. I was just hoping that since I was so young at the time and I have changed for the better so much that they would take this in account, and I'm thinking a parole warrant would be much more serious. I may be mistaken.

The Lawer I talked to also suggested it might only be in the TCIC database because when he looked the up the "outstanding Warrant info" on the web he told me it looked like it was only in the TCIC and not NCIC database but I'm looking at it now and above the section that says "bond remarks" and has the TCIC offense and #'s it says "NCIC Charge Prob Violation"

He also mentioned he could argue the due diligence defense since they have my home address on record and have never tried to get me but I believe your right he mentioned I'd have to turn myself in to get that ball rolling.

I doubt NCIC could have been down or unavailable ALL of the times I was picked up during my drug use years. I was arrested in my home state 5-6 times ending up in Jail many times only not to spend the Max 3-4 days before being kicked loose because they decided not to charge me. I was never a major criminal, most of the time they would arrest me, for example, attempted theft, process me and kick me loose with a court date where the DA would read my name off as one of the people they wern't pursuing a case on. The closest I came was "Grand Theft" (a bike) and I sat in jail about a week, the max time they could hold me without charges or a court date, only to be kicked loose for lack of evidence. I've also been Warrant checked more times than I can count in several states with no warrants shown.


I forgot to mention in my OP I did have 1 probation violation on DUI probation. Driving on a suspended. I was arrested in another county over and extradited to my county where they gave me 30 days and kicked me loose for time served after 18 days.

I've managed to save about 2 thousand with allot of not eating and going without the essentials specifically for this issue and staying in Central America really helps save money with the most expensive thing being rent at 95$ worth of local currency a month. I'm just so afraid to start it rolling because I have no idea of where it might go. I wouldn't mind finishing out the probation as a last resort but I'm afraid they may stick me with the 5 years TDC time on the other hand it's hard to beleive they would do that on a 1st violation for unpaid fee's. Maybe for the not reporting? I don't know, I'm just so confused. I just want to do the right thing and not have it bight me in the ass.

Visiting Texas was the worst mistake of my life. On the good side, I will give out the county, it's Travis county. The most liberal county of Texas. Maybe I could get lucky and they wouldn't be so harsh.

Thanks for the info. I have allot of thinking to do.