Arrested in Norwalk.What happens next.

The arrest and booking

After an arrest you are booked at the police department: fingerprints, photograph, the charge or charges written on a paper you should keep. You may be released on a promise to appear, released on a bond set by the police, or held for arraignment.

You have the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney. Say that you want a lawyer and then say nothing else about the case, to anyone, including on a recorded phone line. A statement given to be helpful is still a statement.

The arraignment, in Stamford

If you are held, the arraignment is usually the next court day. The Norwalk courthouse on Belden Avenue closed in 2020, so Norwalk arrests are now arraigned at the Stamford Superior Court, 123 Hoyt Street. At that hearing the court reads the charges, sets or reviews the bond, and, in a family-violence case, decides whether to issue a protective order.

Having a lawyer at the arraignment can matter a great deal: the bond amount and the terms of a protective order are set there.

Protective orders, and the pistol permit

In a family-violence case the court will most likely issue a criminal protective order at the arraignment. It can bar you from your home and from any contact with the other person while the case is pending, regardless of what that person wants. Violating it is a separate felony. A family-violence arrest or a protective order also usually means the pistol permit will likely be revoked shortly after the arrest, and any firearms must be surrendered or transferred on the order's deadline; that revocation can be appealed, and the office handles it alongside the criminal case.

After the arraignment

The case is continued to a pretrial date. Between hearings the office obtains the police report, the warrant, any video and the witness statements. The prosecutor may begin discussions with the office once those are in. Cases end in one of four ways: a dismissal, a negotiated plea, another way to resolve it short of a trial, or a trial.

If it was a DUI

There is a second clock. The DMV suspension is a separate administrative case with its own short deadline to request a hearing, printed on the notice you were given — typically mailed seven to ten days after the arrest, proposing a forty-five day suspension. Read the DUI page and call as soon as possible.

Questions people ask first

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts. Nothing on this site is legal advice, and contacting the office does not create an attorney-client relationship.