Q: If I was sentenced to surrender for 30 day weekend sentence on a certain day but finished it later on is it bail jumping
I was sentenced to surrender for 30 days on weekends on 3/26/21. I had unforeseen circumstances to not surrender until 4/16/21 but continued to to do it every weekend until I finished with good behavior on 5/31/21. So I finished the sentence just 3 weeks late. Is that still bail jumping?
A:
Like many things in the law the answer is it depends.
642:8 Bail Jumping. –
I. A person is guilty of an offense if, after having been released with or without bail, he:
(a) knowingly fails to appear before a court as required by the conditions of his release; or
(b) knowingly fails to surrender for service of sentence pursuant to a court order.
II. It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that uncontrollable circumstances prevented the person from appearing or surrendering and that the person did not contribute to the creation of such circumstances in reckless disregard of the requirement that he appear or surrender, and that he appeared or surrendered as soon as such circumstances ceased to exist.
You need to contact a lawyer to help determine if you have an affirmative defense or not. It is impossible to tell without more details what the circumstances were.
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