Probation violations in Charlotte, North Carolina
If you’re currently on probation and your Probation Officer is threatening to violate you, do not walk into court unrepresented. Probation officers have a tremendous amount of power. Even though you are entitled to a trial for a probation violation, your Probation Officer makes the determination as to whether or not to violate you. Once you are at trial, the presiding judge will put great weight toward your Probation Officers suggestions as to the terms of your punishment.
Once you make it all the way to the day of your Probation Violation trial, there will undoubtedly be hostility between you and your Probation Officer. A Criminal Defense Lawyer can assist you by acting as a liason and working between you and your officer.
What this covers
- How Long Can I Be Placed on Probation?
- Can Probation be Extended?
- Can Probation be Terminated Early?
- What are the Conditions of Probation?
The process
A violation begins with a report filed by the probation officer setting out what is alleged. The court then holds a violation hearing. This is not a trial: the State does not have to prove the violation beyond a reasonable doubt, and the judge needs only to be reasonably satisfied that a condition was broken.
You are entitled to written notice of the alleged violations, to a hearing, to be represented, and to present evidence and cross-examine. Those rights matter, because the hearing usually moves quickly.
What the court can do
Under G.S. 15A-1344 a judge who finds a violation is not limited to activating the suspended sentence. The realistic outcomes run across a range, and which one you get often turns on how the violation is presented.
- Continue probation on the existing conditions
- Modify the conditions — more reporting, treatment, curfew, electronic monitoring
- Extend the period of probation
- Impose a confinement period in response to the violation
- Revoke probation and activate the suspended sentence
Revocation is narrower than it used to be
Since the Justice Reinvestment Act, a court may generally revoke probation only where the defendant commits a new criminal offense or absconds supervision. For other violations — missed appointments, unpaid money, a failed test — the court’s response is normally a confinement period rather than full revocation, at least until those periods are exhausted.
That distinction is the single most important thing to understand about a violation allegation. Whether conduct is characterized as absconding, or as a failure to report, can be the difference between a short confinement period and an activated sentence.
What to do first
Do not miss the hearing date. A failure to appear compounds the problem and can produce an order for arrest.
Bring proof of everything you have done: payment receipts, community service records, treatment attendance, pay stubs. Violation hearings are decided on a practical impression of whether supervision is working, and documents move that impression far more than explanations do.
Confinement in response to violation
For violations that are not a new offense and not absconding, the ordinary tool is a confinement period rather than activation of the suspended sentence. These are short terms served in response to the violation, and there is a limited number of them available before the court’s options change.
Once those periods are exhausted, a court may revoke on a violation that would previously have drawn a confinement period. That is why the second and third violation reports are materially more dangerous than the first, even where the alleged conduct is no worse.
What counts as a new criminal offense
A new charge is not the same as a new offense. A violation grounded on a fresh charge asks the court to be reasonably satisfied that the offense was committed, which is a lower standard than a conviction and can be met before the new case is resolved.
That creates a real strategic problem, because contesting the violation may require you to address the substance of a case that has not yet been tried. Whether to ask for the violation to be continued until the new charge is resolved is one of the first decisions to make, and it is not always the right one.
Money as a violation
Failure to pay is among the most common allegations, and it has its own rules. A court cannot revoke probation solely because a person is unable to pay; where non-payment is alleged, the defendant is entitled to have the question of ability to pay considered, and a person who has made genuine efforts is in a very different position from one who has not.
Bring evidence of what you earn, what you owe and what you have paid. A modest payment history maintained through real hardship is far more persuasive than a promise to catch up.
Preparing for the hearing
Violation hearings are short and they are decided on impression as much as argument. The person who has read the report, knows exactly which allegations are admitted and which are disputed, and has documents for each, is in control of the hearing in a way that most people are not.
Go through the report line by line before the date. Some allegations are technical and easily answered; others are not. Knowing which is which before you walk in is the whole of the preparation.
Getting ahead of a violation
The best time to deal with a probation problem is before the report is filed. Officers have discretion about what they report and how they characterize it, and a person who raises a difficulty themselves — a lost job, a missed payment, a relapse — is in a materially better position than one who is found out.
Where a violation report has already been filed, the work shifts to preparation: knowing exactly what is alleged, which allegations are admitted, and what evidence answers the rest.
Questions people ask
- Can Probation be Extended?Our Criminal Lawyers assist individuals who are facing Probation Violations.
- Can Probation be Terminated Early?Our Criminal Lawyers assist individuals who are facing Probation Violations. Sheehan to speak with a Criminal Defense…
- How Long Can I Be Placed on Probation?Our Criminal Lawyers assist individuals who are facing Probation Violations.
- What are the Conditions of Probation?Every probationer in North Carolina is subject to the regular conditions in G.S. 15A-1343(b) unless the court says…
Ask about your own situation.
Every matter turns on its facts. Mr. Sheehan reviews each inquiry himself.