QLD Is My Idiot Friend About to go to jail?

[Whrnck]

Hi All,

I've got a tale of woe about a friend of mine, which I'd like your opinions on.

About 2 months ago she got charged with 5 counts of drug supply and 1 count of using an encrypted device to commit a crime. The amounts were each pretty small. She was given a court date of around 1 month ago. Between the charging and the date, she decided to not get a lawyer, ignore the court date, go over to her bf in the US and apply for a marriage visa.

She did not attend court and did not engage a lawyer to attend or attempt to reschedule. Her marriage visa request was denied because she listed the pending court date on her application. So here we are today. She's in the US, but needs to come back to Aus soon as her tourist visa is about to expire.

I've told her multiple times she needs to lawyer up, but she seems to be of the impression that she can just skate back in and they will "defer" the court issue until she returns. This seems amazingly incorrect. Am I right in assuming she will be arrested as soon as she gets back to aus and possibly remanded?
Thanks.

 

[Scruff]

Am I right in assuming she will be arrested as soon as she gets back to aus and possibly remanded?

As far as I can tell, yes. And she will probably be deported from the US when her visa expires. If she went to the US to try and avoid this, then she chose the wrong country. The Australian - US relationship is very co-operative on all levels when it come to law enforcement.

 

[Whrnck]

As far as I can tell, yes. And she will probably be deported from the US when her visa expires. If she went to the US to try and avoid this, then she chose the wrong country. The Australian - US relationship is very co-operative on all levels when it come to law enforcement.

She's coming home voluntarily, but is of the impression all will be well upon her return.

 

[Scruff]

There's definately a chance that she'll be picked up at the airport. It really depends on how serious the Police view the charges and what action they've taken in her absence - there's really no way know what will happen.

 

[Scruff]

If the court date has passed, then an arrest warrant has most likely already been issued. If not, then I would think she would probably be okay on return. With that said however, if she is involved with someone overseas, then she needs to get this sorted and do the right thing, because if she doesn't, she may not be allowed back into the US in the future.

 

[Bill Murray]

Tell her to come back and present to the court in the morning saying she has a FTA warrant. They will either deal with in via the court or the Police will come and action the warrant.

Doubt she'll go to jail.