Responding to a Reported Warrant for an Unfamiliar Harassment Charge

Attorney Answer

Believing the complaint against you is false does not make a warrant go away. If one has issued it stays outstanding until it is dealt with, and staying away is the one strategy guaranteed to make things worse.

Before anything else, verify. A phone call announcing a warrant is a common scam, and the tell is a demand for payment, a gift card, or personal information over the phone. Call the clerk's office of the Superior Court for your judicial district, or the records line of the police department the caller claimed to be from, using a number you look up yourself. Never a number the caller gives you.

If the warrant is real, here is what it is. Under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-2a, the Superior Court or a judge may issue a bench warrant of arrest on application by a prosecutorial official where the accompanying affidavit shows probable cause to believe an offense has been committed and that the person complained against committed it. Probable cause is a low bar — it means someone's sworn account was enough to justify an arrest, not that anyone has decided you are guilty. Under subsection (b), the issuing court may set the conditions of release in the warrant itself, fixing the first of the following it finds necessary to assure appearance: a written promise to appear, execution of a bond without surety in no greater amount than necessary, or execution of a bond with surety in no greater amount than necessary. That is the practical reason to get a lawyer involved before you go anywhere. Because the release terms are commonly on the face of the warrant, counsel can usually find out what the bond is and arrange a surrender at a scheduled time, rather than leaving you to be picked up at work, at home, or at a traffic stop.

The likely offense given what you describe is harassment in the second degree, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-183, a class C misdemeanor. The elements have to be checked against the actual facts alleged, and the subsection covering communications was substantially narrowed by the legislature, so the current text needs to be read against the affidavit rather than assumed. Your belief that the report is false is a defense you raise inside the case — through the affidavit, the messages, the timeline, and cross-examination. It is not a reason a warrant is withdrawn on request.

What you can do

1. Verify the warrant through the clerk's office or the police records line, using a number you looked up. Pay no one over the phone. 2. Say nothing about the underlying facts to any officer. You do not have to explain, and explanations become evidence. "I'd like to speak with a lawyer" is a complete answer. 3. Get a lawyer now, before surrender. If you cannot afford one, ask the court clerk about the public defender and apply. 4. Have counsel obtain the warrant and affidavit and check the release conditions set under Conn. Gen. Stat. § 54-2a(b), so you know the bond before you walk in. 5. Arrange a surrender at a scheduled time through counsel, and go with the bond arrangement already in place. 6. Do not contact the complaining person — not to explain, apologize, or ask what happened. On a harassment allegation, contact can create a new offense and will typically violate a protective order entered at arraignment. 7. Preserve your own evidence now: texts, call logs, emails and location records. Give your account of events to your attorney verbally rather than writing it out. Do not delete anything.