If you are on probation and you are picked up by the police on a new case, or you are picked up by the police or the probation department for a technical violation of your probation you are entitled to a certain amount of due process from that detention.
Within a short period of time after the detention, you are entitled to a hearing to determine whether you should be held in custody while awaiting to see the judge or waiting to have a full hearing with the judge. If the trial commissioner or the judge, think that you should not wait in custody for your full hearing, the trial commissioner or the judge can release you. This is proceeding is called a Gagnon I hearing. In Philadelphia county, the defendant is not present at the Gagnon I hearing.If the commissioner or judge rule that you must stay in custody until the Gagnon II hearing, this is called a detainer.
After the Gagnon I hearing is complete, a final hearing, the Gagnon II hearing, must be scheduled within 30 days of the initial hearing. This final hearing is where the defendant goes before the judge and the judge decides whether to violation the defendant, and if so, gives the defendant a new sentence.
The judge can violate the defendant for either a technical or direct violation. An example of a technical violation is not reporting to the probation officer, dirty urine, or not complying with any term or condition of the probation. An example of a direct violation is a new conviction in a new case. Usually the new sentences for direct violations are greater then new sentences for technical, but the judge can always give a big sentence for a technical violation.
When I had a Gagnon I hearing. It was done at the probation office in the presence of my probation officer and their supervisor, and not in court.
There is no requirement that the Gagnon I hearing be conducted by a judge. If the judicial district in which your probation is located has approved the practice, a probation officer and a trial commissioner or magisterial judge can sit in the Common Pleas Court Judge’s place. However, if you become incarcerated as a result of the Gagnon I hearing and you have a new open bill, your attorney can file a motion for a hearing with the Common Pleas Court Judge and ask that you be allowed to be on the street until the outcome of your open case. Most lawyers call that a detainer hearing, but it is actually a second Gagnon I hearing.
My husband is in jail. He had his gagnon 1 hearing on oct. 20, 2009. It got boosted to a gagnon 2 hearing. On Oct. 21 he went to his prelim hearing to see if his new charges would be withdrawn or if he would go to trial. Well they got withdrawn. Under his affidivant he would stay detained until his charges got disposed of. Well it did. He is still in jail his gagnon 2 hearing is not until march 30, 2010. My question is can they keep him in jail until then. He did have 2 technical violations against him now he has one. Is it tru they can only hold him for 120 days started when he went to his gagnon 1 hearing?
If there is nothing else holding him, he has to get a hearing within 30 days of the date that nothing else was holding him or his lawyer can get his detainer certified.
My husband had a violation of probation in 2006 of failure to report and was recently picked up for an i.d. check. In the 3 years he was running from the law, he obtained employment, became active in our childrens schools and has not gotten into any trouble. He has a Gagnon I hearing coming up in a few days and I’m wondering how positive or negative these hearings are and if they will take into cinsideration all the positive things that out weigh the negative things?
My son was put in jail for a dui and a probation violation on June 19, 2010. He had a hearing on June 24, 2010. He was detained for the probation violation… He had his hearing on the new charges on August 17, 2010 and the magistrate set bail at $2500.00, but they did not release him and held him on the probation violation. How long can they continue to hold him? His next court date is not until September 20, 2010. I thought they had to have a probation violation hearing in 30 days to determine if they would revoke his probation. What recourse do we have to get him out of jail?
@Christine, Your son can remain in jail until the new case is over, unless the the judge from the old case (also known as the back judge) lifts the detainer and allows you to pay the bail.
You are correct that your son is entitled to a hearing for Gagnon II every 30 days, the judge can simply continue the hearing because of the open case. In some counties in Pennsylvania, we see that the Gagnon II hears are automatically continued and the person is not even listed on the court docket for the court date, nor are they brought in from the county prison.
My fiance never appeared for his probation 4 years ago and was arrested for a warrant in June of 2009. He served 6 weeks and was released. His conviction was simple assault. He failed a polygraph 3 times and they picked him up for that saying it was a technical violation and now it’s a second violation. How much time can he serve and does a polygraph test even permissable in court. How can they hold him for this and how much time could he possibly serve for this? I do have an attorney, but figured I would ask before
@joie, the whole thing about the poly during probation, and whether the results are admissible for a Gagnon II hearing is very unclear to me. Certainly though for another technical violation, he can be held. However, he must be given a Gagnon II hearing within 30 days of the day he was taken into custody or the Gagnon I hearing.