Violation of Conditions Before Release

I recently taught a session at the magistrates’ conference about arrestable conditions of pretrial release. The session sparked a lot of discussion about the law surrounding pretrial conditions for in-custody defendants. It is well understood that when a defendant violates pretrial release conditions after being released from custody, the law allows several mechanisms for enforcement, including revocation of pretrial release, arrest of the defendant, and the setting of new, potentially stricter conditions of pretrial release. What’s less clear is (1) whether or not conditions of release are enforceable if a defendant has not yet been released, and (2) if they are, what tools judicial officials have for enforcement. This post addresses these questions.  Are conditions of release enforceable while a defendant is still in custody? Yes. This position finds support in State v. Mitchell, 259 N.C. App. 866 (2018). My colleague, Shea Denning, wrote about the case here when the opinion was first issued. In Mitchell, the court determined that a condition of no contact with the victim, imposed by a magistrate at the start of the 48-hour domestic violence period and twice readopted by a judge, was binding on the defendant even though the defendant remained in jail. The no-contact condition was imposed on the “Conditions of Release and Release Order” AOC-CR-200 form. In addition to establishing conditions of release, the orders issued in Mitchell committed the defendant to a detention facility; noted that he was subject to a domestic violence hold; directed when he was to again be produced before a judicial [...]