These pages will advise you of those rights and outline the processes that are gone through in the prosecution of criminal cases. Steps involved in criminal prosecution . Also, the Court will decide what bond, if any, the defendant will be required to post to be released. All criminal defendants, except those charged with capital murder cases, are entitled to the setting of bond. The bond may range anywhere from an own recognizance bond, which means the defendant is released upon signing documents with the Clerk's office promising to appear, to a cash or surety bond where the defendant must post either cash or surety before release.
Court proceedings are open to the public.
A victim is entitled to be present in open court for any of those proceedings if the victim wishes, however, the victim is not required to be. Pretrial Conferences are not open to the public, however, occasionally a court proceeding may take place at the conclusion of the pretrial conference, so a victim my wish to be at the courthouse on those scheduled dates. That way, if something does take place in open court, the victim can be present. The Prosecutor makes arrangements with the Clerk of Court to send a victim copies of any entries which schedules the case for a proceeding in Court. Many times a number of different cases will be on the Court schedule for the same time for pretrial conferences.