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WA: RS only required for bench warrant for violation of probation; no hearing required before warrant issues

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Only a well founded suspicion is required for issuance of a bench warrant for arrest of a probationer. Here, the officer had obtained defendant’s ID and let him go, finding out shortly thereafter there was a bench warrant, so he apprehended the defendant and a search incident produced drugs. State v. Erickson, 2010 Wash. LEXIS 65 (January 21, 2010): Once a person has been convicted of a crime, that person is subject to the court's authority. That authority includes the power to supervise an offender conditionally released. Neither the Fourth Amendment nor article I, section 7 of the state constitution requires the court to make a finding of probable cause at every step of the proceeding. We hold that once a person has been convicted of a felony and is on conditional release for that offense, a bench warrant may be issued for his arrest without probable cause that he has violated the terms of his release...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).