2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-FOUR Appendix - Rules of Court (§§ 10.5 — 173) › II - Rules of Criminal Procedure (§ 173) › Chapter II - PRELIMINARY PROCEEDINGS › Rule 22 - PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE MAGISTRATE

(a) Appearance before the magistrate.— A peace officer making an arrest under a warrant shall take the person arrested before the nearest available magistrate without unnecessary delay. Any person making and arrest without a warrant shall take the person arrested before the nearest available magistrate without unnecessary delay, and if the person making the arrest without a warrant is a private person, he may deliver the person arrested to any peace officer who shall, in turn, take the person arrested without unnecessary delay before a magistrate as provided in this rule. When an arrest is made without a warrant and is brought before a magistrate, the procedures provided in Rules 6 and 7 of this appendix shall be followed, as it may correspond.
(b) Duties of the magistrate; notices.— The magistrate shall inform the person arrested or who has appeared in response to a summons, of the contents of the complaint or charges filed against him/her, of his/her right to communicate with his/her closest relative or with counsel, and to obtain his/her services, and of his/her right to a preliminary hearing if the offense charged against him/her is a felony. The magistrate shall also inform the person that he/she is not bound to make any statement and that any statement made by him/her may be used against him/her. The magistrate shall impose conditions or admit bail, with or without conditions, as provided in these rules, or shall make the corresponding determinations in those cases where the persons charged with an offense have submitted voluntarily to the supervision of the Office of Pretrial Services for its evaluation, report and recommendations on their cases. In the event the person arrested fails to comply with the conditions imposed, or does not post bail, the magistrate shall order his/her imprisonment. In the case of an accused person who remains free under deferred bail, under his/her own recognizance, in custody of a third party or conditional release, and fails to comply with the conditions imposed, the magistrate shall revoke the determination of deferred bail and shall order the posting of bail, with or without conditions; and, in the event the accused person fails to post bail, the magistrate shall order his/her imprisonment.
(c) Statements in the warrant of arrest or summons; remittance.— The magistrate shall set forth on the warrant of arrest or summons the appearance of the defendant and the warnings made to him/her, and in the case of a felony, if such is the case, the fact that said person cannot obtain counsel to assist him/her at the trial or at the preliminary hearing.
In such cases, the magistrate shall determine cause for the arrest for a felony, summon the defendant without legal representation to a conference before the preliminary hearing within two weeks of the arrest. To said conference, if the defendant is imprisoned, the Corrections Administration shall transport him/her to the court in order to make the arrangements for legal representation. The Courts Administration shall provide its facilities so that officials of the legal aid programs may interview him/her and certify his/her indigence before assuming his/her defense. If he/she cannot be represented by any of the programs and the court certifies that said inmate does not have the resources to retain counsel, the court shall then appoint one.
The magistrate shall remit the complaint, the decree in those cases in which the same was drawn up and the warrant of arrest or summons to the corresponding section and part of the Court of First Instance where further proceedings shall be held as provided by these rules.
History —Feb. 8, 1966; June 22, 1966, No. 100, p. 322, § 1; June 5, 1986, No. 39, p. 103, § 2; June 19, 1987, No. 29, p. 91, § 5; Dec. 8, 1990, No. 26, p. 1516, § 2; Dec. 24, 1995, No. 245, § 2; Sept. 2, 2000, No. 376, § 1, eff. 30 days after Sept. 2, 2000.