Arrested in Queens? Immediate Defence and the Questions to Ask Now

If you have just been arrested in Queens, the sequence below is what I would want a family to do. It takes ten minutes and it matters.

Right now

1. 1Do not discuss what happened with anyone, including family, until you have spoken to a lawyer.
2. 2Do not consent to a search and do not volunteer anything about the incident.
3. 3Do not delete anything or post anything anywhere. Say nothing about this to anyone.
4. 4Write down, for yourself, the time, the place and who was present. Do not discuss it with anyone else.
5. 5Call. If you cannot, have someone call, and give them the name, the date and the court on the paperwork.
6. 6Ask the court clerk what the next appearance is and where, and write it down somewhere you will see it.

Where you are

Queens County criminal matters are generally heard at the criminal court in Kew Gardens. If you have been moved somewhere else — a hospital, another borough, federal custody — that is a question for the lawyer rather than something to work out from a map. Getting the location right is the first thing to establish, because everything else depends on it.

Where elder law sometimes becomes relevant

This is worth raising because it is genuinely overlooked. The same person facing a criminal charge is frequently also the person whose capacity is in question, or whose parents are losing capacity, or who is caring for someone who is.

• If the arrest involves a family member and there is any doubt about their capacity to understand the proceedings, that is a separate and serious issue.
• If the accused is a parent and a child is involved, decisions about the child may need to be made quickly by someone with legal authority.
• If there is an existing power of attorney or health care proxy in the family, understanding what it does and does not cover is important.
• If a charge is connected to a mental health or substance use situation, the treatment and defence questions need to be looked at together rather than separately.
• If there is a warrant already outstanding for a family member, arrest on a related charge can change the whole picture.

None of this is a reason to delay dealing with the criminal matter. It is a reason not to assume the criminal matter is the only matter.

What helps most, in practice

Honest information, early. Families frequently come in with a version of events that they have been told, or have worked out, and the lawyer spends the first hour establishing what actually happened. That hour is often the most valuable in the case. It is far better than a reconstruction a month later, and it is the reason families should call rather than spend a day deciding whether to.

If you cannot afford a lawyer right now

Call anyway. Many jurisdictions provide assigned counsel at the first appearance in some circumstances, and knowing what is available matters. Being unrepresented at a first appearance is the point at which the most damage is done, because it is the point at which the first offer is usually made and usually accepted by default.