- Joined
- Aug 2, 2021
Oh God yeah actually how long could these continuances go on for? The paper spray Incident lasted only 10 months could this thing be continued for years?! If so this is going a long and tedious saga for everyone involved.
They won't drag the court case on for years, there's no reason to. You run out of reasons for continuances, and Chris is being held without bail on a misdemeanor charge. Judges don't like it when someone is held without bail for longer than the maximum sentence. The maximum sentence for a misdemeanor is one year.
In addition, due to the statute of limitations, they can't bring any new misdemeanor charges a year after the incident, only felony charges. This means that any plea deal that uses other misdemeanors (other than the one he's already charged with) must happen before then, unless Chris is arraigned on them preemptively to keep them alive for a deal.
Felonies in Virginia have no statute of limitations so they can add them at any time. We'll know if things are getting worse for Chris if felony charges drop *before* a deal happens. We'll know this is happening because the case will shift to regular circuit court and there will be a lot more public access to the hearings. The first hearing in circuit court will probably be Chris entering a less-than-ideal plea deal. If there is no deal at the first circuit court hearing, then Chris is in big trouble (but this is very unlikely to happen).
More likely the case will stay in J&DR court, and end with a plea agreement either at the February hearing or the next hearing after that, Chris will enter a reasonable plea deal for misdemeanors with time served plus maybe a little extra, and some creative release/probation conditions. This will almost certainly all be over by May or June.
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