Mohegan Sun Court Process
After an arrest at Mohegan Sun Casino, an individual must properly prepare themselves with a strong defense against their charge. Due to the overwhelming prospect of navigating the Mohegan Sun court process alone, an individual should hire a Mohegan Sun defense attorney immediately to assist in crafting a defense. A knowledgeable lawyer will be able to assist in reducing any potential penalties you may be facing.
Process of an Arrest
The Mohegan Sun court process will begin with an appearance at Norwich Superior Court. If it is a domestic violence arrest, a person will be required to appear on the next business morning to face their protective order hearing. If it is not a domestic violence arrest, a person will be given a court date for seven to ten days out. If the case is a serious felony, it will be transferred automatically to New London Superior Court in New London, Connecticut where it will be transferred to the Part A docket.
Connecticut state prosecutors, not tribal prosecutors, will prosecute a person’s case and work with their Norwich defense lawyer. If they can reach an agreement, they do not have to get a judge involved, or a person’s lawyer can ask for a supervised pre-trial with a Norwich Superior Court judge.
For a less serious charge, a person’s lawyer will work quickly to try to get the charges dropped. The Norwich Superior Court usually attempts to separate the high-risk cases from the lower risk, one-off one-time offender cases. The Mohegan Sun court process should only be navigated through the use of an attorney.
Preparing the Defense
The benefit of defense investigations, with respect to the Mohegan Sun court process, is the access to some high-tech video surveillance technology.
The first thing an attorney will do when their client is facing criminal charges in Mohegan Sun is to make the determination as to whether or not they want to make a motion to the judge to preserve the video surveillance of the alleged crime.
Sometimes it is not in a client’s best interest to ask that the evidence be preserved because it may not be helpful to the client. Especially if an attorney knows in advance that the video will not be helpful. Many times, however, the video is helpful, and those are the cases where evidence will quickly disappear or be overwritten if police believe that the video surveillance will not help the case, especially if the client is not at fault.
Gathering Evidence
That is when a defense attorney will file an evidence preservation request. These requests can include video surveillance at the Mohegan Sun Casino, and also social media posts, emails, text messages, and even the video surveillance at the tribal police station if an attorney believes that evidence could be helpful. These motions, however, need to be filed right away.
Attorneys have access to all parts of the investigation including the evidence, but they need to file motions to access that evidence, such as witness statements, police report and 911 calls.
Other resources that defense attorneys have access to while representing a client during the Mohegan Sun court process are the personnel files of all the Mohegan Sun tribal officers. Many of those officers are new since it is a relatively new police department. Sometimes, the lack of training in a certain area of law or in search and seizure can be very helpful to a defense if the tribal police did not follow the proper protocol.
Potential Penalties
Consequences of a Mohegan Sun arrest include jail time, probation, a lifetime ban on entering the Mohegan Sun Casino, return of money if accused of cheating in the casino, and being put on a state-wide casino blacklist that will get an individual banned from any casino in Connecticut, or even in neighboring states. That is something that could be appealed separately in an administrative hearing with the casino. Sometimes, there are fines or community service involved in prosecuting an offense. The Mohegan Sun court process often has various penalties depending on the severity of the charge.
Impact of a Conviction
If a person is not a legal citizen, there are immigration consequences that a person’s lawyer can explain. Also, if someone works in finance, works with money, or works for a big company, an arrest at Mohegan Sun can be detrimental to their professional licenses such as a FINRA license, especially when it comes down to the annual registration of their U-4 form with FINRA. That is an extremely important registration process that could be detrimentally impacted by a Mohegan Sun arrest.
If a person is working in finance, works with money or works for a big company, they should talk to a top Mohegan Sun criminal law firm about the impact of an arrest on their job, especially whether or not they have to tell their boss or employer. That answer is often governed by an employee handbook or a regulatory rule with FINRA.
The complexity of the Mohegan Sun court process is something that should not be tackled alone. If you have been accused of a crime on Mohegan Sun Casino’s grounds, it is pertinent that you contact a lawyer immediately. It is important to begin building a defense that can help minimize any penalties you are up against.