I met with the attorney again today and did put down the retainer. Of course there are no guarantees, but she did look over his case and showed me 3 cases very similar to his that she actually got dismissed. Yes, my son has been a LOT of trouble as a juvenile. He was charged with grand larceny, and has been caught with a gun in the past. He took a plea, and was put on probation for 2 years. He violated probation, and was caught with a gun again. If he is convicted this time, he will be a felon and the charges will stick. Don't get me wrong. I'm not condoning anything he has done, nor do I feel he should get away with this. I'm just afraid he will get the maximum of 20 years if I don't hire a decent attorney. Here, many of our public defenders don't defend anyone adequately. They are by far overworked and underpaid. I also made sure my son is aware that this is the last time I'm paying for his defense. Also I warned him that even if he is able to convince a judge to set bond, I'm not bonding him out. He has a long history of absconding, and that's the last thing he needs to do now. I really appreciate all the responses here. I still don't know if I did they right thing.
