Harassment and Stalking Laws in District of Columbia

Stalking is purposely engaging in a course of conduct (on 2 or more occasions, directly or through others, in person or by any means including phone, email or websites, following, monitoring, surveilling, threatening or communicating to or about someone, interfering with their property, or using their personal identifying information) that is intended to, known to, or should be known to make the person fear for safety, feel seriously alarmed or frightened, or suffer emotional distress. It is punishable by up to 12 months in jail, a fine, or both. Stalking carries up to 5 years if the person violated a court, parole or supervised-release no-contact order, has a prior stalking conviction within 10 years, was at least 4 years older than a victim under 18, or caused more than $2,500 in financial injury, and up to 10 years with 2 or more prior stalking convictions. D.C. has no separate general harassment crime; harassing conduct is usually charged as stalking.

District of Columbia's rule on court-appointed lawyers: Counsel is provided under a court plan to any person in the District who is financially unable to obtain adequate representation and is charged with a felony, misdemeanor or other offense where the Sixth Amendment requires counsel; the plan includes attorneys furnished by the Public Defender Service, private attorneys, and clinical-program attorneys and students (§ 11-2601). The Public Defender Service may represent persons financially unable to obtain adequate representation who are charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment for a term of 6 months or more, among other listed categories; the determination of financial inability is based on information provided by the person to be represented, and the court may require information from other persons or agencies (§ 2-1602). D.C. Code §§ 2-1602, 11-2601

Lawyers set their own fees, and District of Columbia has rules on how they may charge. See hiring a criminal defense lawyer in District of Columbia for fee rules, how to check a lawyer's license and free help.

How release before trial works in District of Columbia: The default is release: 'The judicial officer shall order the pretrial release of the person on personal recognizance, or upon execution of an unsecured appearance bond in an amount specified by the court,' unless that will not reasonably assure appearance or will endanger the safety of any other person or the community. If not, the officer imposes the least restrictive further condition or combination of conditions. A judicial officer may not impose a financial condition to assure community safety, and may impose one to assure the defendant's presence only if it does not result in the preventive detention of the person; a person detained because of inability to meet conditions is entitled, on application, to review of the conditions (§ 23-1321). Pretrial detention requires a hearing, held immediately upon first appearance (continuances limited to 5 days for the defense and 3 days for the government absent good cause), and a finding by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure appearance and safety; rebuttable presumptions apply for certain armed and violent crimes. A detained person generally must be indicted within 90 days and have trial commence within 100 days (§ 23-1322). D.C. Code §§ 23-1321, 23-1322 What happens after an arrest.

Each state sets its own rules for sealing or expunging records. See District of Columbia expungement and record sealing rules.