We will start this paragraph by explaining what some terms are that you will have to familiarize yourself with. When an individual is arrested in a sex related case he will more then likely go to jail. After the person is arrested they will either post bond or remain in jail. This is until the prosecution decides whether they will file the charges that the person is arrested for. This sounds kind of strange to someone not working in the system or having much contact with it. I will try to explain it. When the person is arrested the arrest/police report is given to the individual that are in charge of reading this report with other evidence and then decide whether prosecution of that county has enough evidence to file charges. If the prosecution in the state of Florida decides to file charges they will preparing a document called an information. The information sets out all the charges that the accused will face in it. In other types of case the state files what is called an Indictment. Indictments and information’s will be discussed at length in later sections but all you need to know now is that these two documents is where the state outlines what the accused is charged with. Once the state files information or an indictment then comes the first court date.
The first court date is called the arraignment. In the arraignment is brought before the judge and the charges are read to them. The judge then asked the individual how does he plead. This is asking you to state whether you say you are guilty, not guilty or no contest. There are other more option but to keep this simple we will stick to these three. The first two are self explanatory. The third is no contest. This means that the accused is not saying they are guilty nor are they saying that they are not guilty and they are allowing the court to go forward. This is usually plead as part of the person taking a negotiated deal. The accused pleads no contest in exchange for the deal offered. The judge then decide whether they will accept the deal because the judge must accept the deal. In a case where individual does not have representation the arraignment is conducted in open court. Sometimes when the accused is defended by the public defenders office the arraignment is sometime conducted in open court but when the individual hires a private attorney the attorney files a written plea of not guilt along with their notice of appearance. Under the Florida rules of Criminal Procedure if a written plea of not guilty is filed the arraignment is waived. In this case the accused will be able to skip the arraignment because his lawyer put a written plea of not guilty.
There are many scenarios where different thing could happen at an arraignment but the scenarios that we have just gone over is what usually happens. It is the start of the case and now there is no doubt whether charges will be filed.