Setting Aside a Domestic Violence Warrant in Ohio

Ohio defense attorney Brian Joslyn explains how a domestic violence warrant in Ohio can be resolved by setting aside the warrant. If you’ve been arrested or if a warrant for your arrest has been issued, call Joslyn Law Firm at (614) 444-1900 today for a consultation to discuss your case.

Domestic violence cases are handled under state protocol and police policy protocol. But most importantly if you make a domestic violence call, generally speaking, they are to separate the parties and determine a primary aggressor based on the evidence that they observe at the scene, and one will be arrested. However unfair it may be, one person is going to go to jail. In other circumstances where the police come to the scene and the alleged defendant is not there, they’ll issue a warrant for their arrest. Now, warrant for your arrest means that the police are looking for you. It doesn’t mean that you are guilty of a crime. It means that they’re simply looking for you, and if they find you, they’re going to arrest you and they’re going to take you. And so a common call that I’ll receive on a domestic violence case is “I just found out that I  have a domestic violence warrant”. And I’ll have to inform my clients there’s only two ways to get rid of the warrant. Turn yourself in, which no one wants to hear, because that means that you’re going to have to serve yourself into the jail, and you’ll be sitting there for sometime before we get you before a judge. The alternative is what’s called a domestic violence warrant set aside. In a domestic violence warrant set aside, what we’re attempting to do is avoid the turn in process, contact the prosecutor’s office, contact the court, and see if we can arrange a time to walk in on this matter. And have the warrant set aside without our client having to go through the jail process. We try to avoid that process through this domestic violence warrant set aside. Now to do this, and it depends on which county you’re in, it generally requires the cooperation of the alleged victim. Many times as I said, the alleged victim is on our side. And they’re willing to come into court, they’re willing to go before a judge, they’re willing to talk to their victim advocate and that they don’t want a charge, and they don’t want this warrant, and they don’t want this person to go to jail. And in those circumstances, the chances of success are high, in terms of potentially getting their warrant set aside. Absent factors like the person has a domestic violence history or something about the case facts in this are specifically egregious. Meaning, the complaint itself reads very badly, or there was some injury that was, you know, egregious. Like a broken nose, or just visibly bloodied or beaten. In those cases I think that judges exercise more discretion and are less willing to set side the warrant, even though the alleged victim is sitting there requesting it. And in those circumstances, a bond is issued, and the client is still given the opportunity to get out, but normally they have to pay a bond amount to get out at that point. But typically if there is no prior criminal history, if the case facts as alleged in the criminal complaint aren’t overly egregious, most judges will consider setting aside the warrant.