Misdemeanor Criminal Procedure in the District Court of Maryland
Under the common law of England, a misdemeanor was a crime for which the maximum penalty was 1 year in jail or less. Maryland law draws heavily from the common law, but Maryland does not observe the 1-year rule strictly. Some misdemeanors have theoretical maximum penalties of well over a year, though I am not aware of any crime designated in Maryland as a felony which has less than a 1 year maximum. While the effects of conviction of a misdemeanor are, broadly speaking, less severe than for those of a felony, a misdemeanor conviction can seriously damage your ability to work in certain professions, may jeopardize some professional licenses or certifications or cause other serious problems.
Most – not all, but most – misdemeanors start in the District Court of Maryland after a “charging document” has been filed. A charging document may include a hand-written summons, a traffic ticket or a more formal statement of charged filed by a law enforcement officer or private citizen. For certain charges, an arrest or arrest warrant may be legally justified while not in others. If a defendant is arrested, he or she will be generally be given a copy of the charging document upon processing through a “court commissioner”, a District Court official, who will determine whether initial bail is appropriate or whether the defendant can be released or recognizance, i.e. his or her promise to return timely to court for trial. Recognized is also known as “recog” or “ROR.” If there is a bail, the defendant may post the bail or request a bail review by a judge of the District Court, at which bail may be lowered or raised. After that bail review, a detainee may also request that the Circuit Court review the constitutionality of the terms of confinement under a writ of habeas corpus.
Most persons charged in the District Court are neither arrested nor held on any bail. For some jailable charges, in lieu of arrest, an officer will issue a citation, sometimes with the requirement that the defendant present himself/herself to a court commissioner within a certain period of time, often 48-72 hours, merely to “check in” without formal booking or arrest. Sometimes there is no such requirement, however. If there is no arrest, no bail, no arrest warrant and no requirement to appear before a commissioner, the defendant must merely await a trial date notice which the District Court will process upon confirmation of service of paperwork upon the defendant.
Pre-trial discovery procedures are reasonably extensive in Maryland; a defendant can ordinarily review nearly the entire file of the State’s Attorney before trial. An important part of misdemeanor defense is the filing of a formal discovery motion to allow pre-trial review of statements, documentary evidence and other material.
At trial, a defendant facing District Court misdemeanor charges (or some felonies which the District Court may also hear) may in some cases have a right to a jury trial. All persons facing a charge with a maximum penalty of greater than 90 days in jail may have that charge and all related charges heard before a jury, upon which request the entire case is sent to the Circuit Court (since DIstrict Court has no jury jurisdiction.) From a practitioner’s standpoint it is not uncommon to use the right to a jury trial not only to secure a jury but for other tactical/strategic reasons, and requesting a jury trial does NOT bind one to having one in Circuit Court; a defendant may request it and theerafter waive it.
When cases are tried in the District Court, the trials are usually fairly swift. Some judges will try the case immediately upon the calling of the case in that morning or afternoon docket; other judges conduct all trials after all pleas, dismissals or other dispositions have been conducted, towards the end of the docket. In all cases, the defendant has the right not to testify and not to have her/his silence treated as an admission of any part of the government’s case, and the defendant may call witnesses on his/her behalf as well, including under the compulsory subpoena power of the Court. Verdicts are almost always issued immediately upon the conclusion of all of the evidence and presentations of oral argument.
It should be noted that while most of the foregoing applies to misdemeanor charges, it is possible for a few felony charges to proceed in District Court per the above procedures. Felony theft, credit card and check violations which are felonies primarily because of the alleged amount stolen (usually over $500.00) can proceed in the District Court and frequently do so. Similarly, misdemeanors with maximum penalties of more than 3 years’ incarceration can be brought in the Circuit Court with more elaborate proceedings; one such example would be certain misdemeanor firearms violations which carry up to 5 years’ in prison but are misdemeanors. In both the “low felonies” and the “high misdemeanors” the District Court and Circuit Court may exercise what’s known as “concurrent jurisdiction.”
If you are facing misdemeanor charges for which you are facing any exposure whatsoever, you should contact and retain legal counsel as soon as possible. You should not wait and you should not put it off. If you cannot afford private counsel you may qualify for the services of the Office of the Public Defender, which in Maryland is well-respected. If you can afford private counsel, you owe it to yourself not to go up against the career aspirations of an ambitious Assistant State’s Attorney who has not your rights, but his/her own career and employer’s political concerns, foremost in mind. It is important to hire an attorney who is willing actually to try the case if needed; some defense attorneys make their livings primarily from plea-ing cases out and not being willing to make the government prove its case. You do NOT want a “pallbearer” for your case to escort it and you to a guilty verdict quietly; you need an attorney willing to cause a scene to “interrupt the funeral procession” in favor of your liberty. While I have 17 years’ experience in the practice of law with a majority of that experience involving an active criminal and traffic court practice, there are nearly 20,000 lawyers in Maryland. It’s important to hire a good criminal defense attorney and “good” here starts with fighting attitude and fighting spirit – even when the charges are misdemeanors and fortunately not felonies.
