12.2 Arrest Through Sentencing and the 15-Day Rule

Arrest Through Sentencing and the 15-Day Rule

Quick Answer: The criminal path the exam tests is arrest → arraignment → (felony) preliminary hearing → trial → sentencing. If no complaint is filed, Penal Code 1305(a)(2)(A) strips the court of jurisdiction to forfeit and releases the bail of all obligations under the bond when 15 days have run from arraignment. After a dismissal, Penal Code 1303 holds exoneration for 15 days so the same bond can attach if the defendant is rearrested and charged for the same act. Those clocks are bond rules. They are not a charging bar. The educational objectives say charges can be filed up to one year after the initial arrest — classroom shorthand for the ordinary misdemeanor statute of limitations (Penal Code 802(a): one year from commission). Most felonies are three years from commission (Penal Code 801).

Two of the seven Criminal Justice System items sit here. Sort the clocks. The 48-hour magistrate clock is not the 15-day bond clock. The 15-day information clock after a hold-to-answer is not the 15-day no-complaint clock.

Arrest and the first 48 hours

Penal Code 834 defines arrest as taking a person into custody, in a case and in the manner authorized by law. A peace officer or a private person may arrest. The licensed bail agent does not make the original arrest; recovery of a bail fugitive is a later, separately licensed topic.

Penal Code 825(a) requires that the defendant be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay and, in any event, within 48 hours after arrest, excluding Sundays and holidays. If that 48 hours expires while the court is not in session, time extends through the next court session on the next judicial day. When the arrest occurs on a Wednesday after the day's session, and Wednesday is not a court holiday, the defendant shall be taken before the magistrate not later than Friday if Friday is not a holiday. Penal Code 825(b) then gives an attorney entitled to practice in California courts of record the right, at the request of the prisoner or a relative, to visit. An officer who willfully refuses that visit is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall forfeit $500 to the aggrieved party.

Penal Code 849 is the station-house "no charges" off-ramp. A peace officer may release a warrantless arrestee without taking the person before a magistrate when, among other listed grounds, the officer is satisfied there are insufficient grounds for making a criminal complaint. Specified 849(b) releases are recorded as a detention only, not an arrest. If a bond was already posted and the People never file, look to 1305, not to 849, for whether this undertaking still answers.

Penal Code 851.5 (jail-window rules in Chapter 5) is why the family can reach you: the arrested person has a right to completed telephone calls, including a call to a bail bondsman.

Arraignment

When a felony is charged by a written complaint subscribed under oath and on file in a court in the county, Penal Code 859 requires that the defendant be taken, without unnecessary delay, before a magistrate of that court. The magistrate must immediately deliver a copy of the complaint, inform the defendant of the right to the assistance of counsel, ask whether the defendant desires counsel, and allow reasonable time to send for counsel. In a capital case the court must tell the defendant that representation is mandatory at all stages. If the defendant desires and is unable to employ counsel, the court assigns counsel. Penal Code 987 repeats that counsel rule when the defendant appears for arraignment in the superior court. Penal Code 988 describes the arraignment itself: the accusatory pleading is read, a copy is delivered, and the defendant is asked to plead.

For a person released from jail on a 1269b schedule bond before a complaint exists, the jailer sets the appearance date. That date is the arraignment the 15-day bond clock uses.

The 15-day rule: Penal Code 1305 and 1303

No complaint — 1305(a)(2)(A). A court shall not have jurisdiction to declare a forfeiture, and the bail shall be released of all obligations under the bond, if the case is dismissed or if no complaint is filed within 15 days from the date of arraignment. That is the blueprint's "no charges filed" item.

Ninety-day overlay — 1305(a)(2)(B). The court's jurisdiction to declare a forfeiture, and its authority to release bail, may be extended for not more than 90 days from the arraignment date originally set by the jailer under 1269b(a) if the prosecutor requests in writing or in open court that the arraignment be continued to allow time to file the complaint, or if the defendant requests the extension in writing or in open court.

Dismissal — 1303. If an action or proceeding against a defendant who has been admitted to bail is dismissed, the bail shall not be exonerated until a period of 15 days has elapsed since the entry of the order of dismissal. If, within such period, the defendant is arrested and charged with a public offense arising out of the same act or omission upon which the dismissed action was based, the bail shall be applied to that public offense. If an undertaking of bail is on file, the clerk shall promptly mail notice to the surety on the bond and the bail agent who posted the bond whenever bail is applied under this section.

Read the two statutes as a pair. 1305 tells the court it cannot forfeit, and that the surety is released of obligations, when there is a dismissal or when 15 days pass from arraignment with no complaint. 1303 delays exoneration for 15 days after a dismissal so the same paper can attach if the People immediately recharge the same act. After that 15-day hold, if there is no same-act arrest and charge, the bond is done. A later new case needs a new undertaking.

California scenario. A defendant is booked in San Bernardino on a warrantless felony. Schedule bail is posted Friday night. The jailer sets arraignment for Monday. The district attorney has not filed a complaint by that Monday. The bond is not dead at 9:00 a.m. Monday. Penal Code 1305 runs 15 days from arraignment. If day 16 arrives with no complaint and no 90-day request, the court cannot forfeit and the surety is released of all obligations on that bond. If instead the complaint is filed and later dismissed, 1303 holds exoneration for 15 days. A same-act rearrest and charge inside that window keeps this bond on the new file, and the clerk must mail the surety and the agent.

"Charges can be filed up to one year after initial arrest"

The March 2023 educational objectives use that sentence. Teach it as exam language, then map it onto real Penal Code clocks so you do not invent a charging statute that does not exist.

The 15-day rules in 1303 and 1305 are about whether this bond still answers. They do not bar the district attorney from charging. Penal Code 802(a) is the ordinary misdemeanor statute of limitations: prosecution shall be commenced within one year after commission of the offense, with listed exceptions. Penal Code 801 is the ordinary felony clock: three years after commission, except as sections 799 and 800 provide (including offenses with no limitation or a longer period). The objectives' "one year after initial arrest" is a classroom shorthand aimed at the typical misdemeanor window. It is not a repeal of 801, and it is not a promise that every felony dies on the arrest anniversary. Do not mark "the DA is forever barred at day 16" as correct. Do not mark "every charge in California expires one year after booking" as correct either.

Preliminary hearing, information, trial, sentencing

If the public offense is a felony and the defendant has not pleaded guilty under 859a, Penal Code 859b requires the magistrate, after counsel appears (or after a reasonable wait under 859), to set a preliminary examination and to allow not less than two days, excluding Sundays and holidays, to prepare. Both the defendant and the People have the right to that hearing at the earliest possible time. Unless both waive or good cause is found, it shall be held within 10 court days of arraignment or plea, whichever occurs later. If the defendant is in custody solely on that complaint for 10 or more court days and the hearing is set or continued beyond 10 court days, the magistrate shall dismiss, unless the defendant personally waives or the prosecution establishes good cause. If the hearing is set beyond 10 court days, the defendant shall be released pursuant to section 1318 unless listed exceptions apply (including a capital offense where the proof is evident and the presumption great). The magistrate shall dismiss if the hearing is set or continued more than 60 days from arraignment or plea unless the defendant personally waives.

Penal Code 860 lets a represented defendant waive the examination; the magistrate then holds the defendant to answer, and the district attorney must file the information in the superior court within 15 days. Penal Code 739 is the companion filing duty after a Penal Code 872 commitment: the information shall be filed within 15 days after the commitment, in the name of the people, subscribed by the district attorney. Penal Code 1382(a)(1) dismisses if a person has been held to answer and an information is not filed within 15 days. That is a charging-document 15-day clock. It is not the 1305 no-complaint bond clock.

Trial clocks — 1382. In a felony case, the defendant shall be brought to trial within 60 days of arraignment on the indictment or information, unless a waiver or listed exception applies. In a misdemeanor or infraction case, the clock is 30 days if the defendant is in custody at arraignment or plea, and 45 days in all other cases. A defendant may enter a general time waiver. If the defendant is unrepresented, consent to a later trial date does not count unless the court has explained the 1382 rights.

Sentencing is judgment. After a guilty verdict, Penal Code 1166 (Chapter 5) can remand the defendant and exonerate the bond — a refund of a cash deposit or a release of the undertaking, not a refund of the agent's premium. A not-guilty verdict, a dismissal that survives 1303's 15-day hold, or another statutory exoneration likewise ends the surety's court liability on that paper.

Traps. 825's 48 hours is not 1305's 15 days. 1305's 15 days run from arraignment, not from booking. 1303's 15 days run from dismissal and can keep the same bond on a same-act refile. 739, 860, and 1382(a)(1)'s 15 days are about filing the information, not about releasing the bond. "No charges filed" releases this bond; it does not erase the statute of limitations. The educational-objectives "one year" line is not a felony charging cap.