Twin Falls Court House

Twin Falls Justice system is a far cry of being called justice. In October of 2018 I was passing through Twin Falls from Las Vegas back to my home in Washington state. Unaware that I had put my marijuana candy bar that i bought in Vegas in my purse and was heading to a marijuana unfriendly state, i headed off to Idaho in hopes of getting home safely. In Twin Falls I was stopped for speeding. A routine traffic stop and was asked if we had any drugs on us. Of course I said no because it did not cross my mind. When the officer asked if he could bring a k9 unit out to sniff for any drugs and if they would find anything my heart sank and I realized that yes indeed I had a half marijuana laced candy bar and the butt of a joint in my purse. Scared that I would be arrested for not being honest and causing any delays in my trip back home, I voluntarily gave my possessions to the officer who then searched the rest of the car and obviously did not find anything else. He gave me a ticket for speeding and a misdemeanor for posession of marijuana. I would like to emphasize that I did not even have one ounce of marijuana, not even a gram. We are talking a minuscule amount of milligrams. But in Idaho none of this matters. Any amount is illegal. And if you are travelling from one state where it's legal to another it is still illegal. Of course I did not have the funds to hire a private attorney and was forced to get a public defender. The incompetency of my attorney was astonishing. After she read the police report she asked if she could just send me the form to plea guilty and be on my way. I had told her no I wanted to fight it and use the defense that I was detained for an extended amount of time by the officer and his detaining had drifted away from the original purpose of his stop which was for speeding. My attorney had told me that defense would not fly by the judge because I voluntarily gave my marijuana candybar to the officer and had I not, and didn't give him permission to search and sent a k9 anyways I may have been able to get away with that defense. So fullheartedly taking her advice of being honest and fessing up I voluntarily pleaded guilty hoping the judge would cut me some slack but this did not happen. I was charged with almost $700 in fines and court fees as well as court ordered unsupervised probation and 100 hours of community service as a condition of a witheld judgement. As someone who has had no criminal record I feel as though this sentencing was excessive for just being a candy bar and a butt of a joint and they were just looking for their payout. I am not saying I don't think i should be held accountable but i am not a threat to society and putting these conditions on someone whose life will be affected dramatically and will be put on my record forever, I don't think this was justice. To top it all off, my public defender was cracking inside jokes with the court reporter whispering and giggling while at the stand before the judge started my trial. I felt she saw my case as a joke and thought this was beyond disrespectful to me as a client. And she did not ask the judge for witheld judgement which I had discussed with her multiple times. Had it not been for me speaking up I would have been convicted on the spot. I would also like to state that she caused me to almost have a bench warrant out for my arrest because she did not bring my absencia paperwork to my pre-trial and the court was in the process of filing it. Thankfully I had a copy of my receipt of fax that showed indeed I sent it in on time prior to my court date. She apologized profusely and passed off the blame onto the public defender receptionists. All I'm saying is if you are looking for an attorney, learn from my mistakes and hire a real lawyer that will put thought and consideration into your case and won't make a mockery of it. These charges affect me from finishing my college degree until I complete my probation but I am thankful for the witheld judgement which basically just puts my life on hold. This is not justice. You have been exposed.

This place jews you of your money by putting everyone on probation like they dont already make enough money off taxes in this garbage state.

They are caring and help those who are in need.

Great facility with awesome staff. Thanks for all you do for our community!

This courthouse doesn't even deserve a single star for the reprehensible and disgusting sentencing of the racist, perverted, and sadistic John R.K. Howard! Anally raping a mentally disabled black boy with a iron coat hanger while his friends held the boy so he couldn't fight back and THEN kicking said coat hanging is one of the most evil bullying tactics I have ever heard of! It is a severe red flag to me that this demon kid (Howard) is even allowed to return to school and didn't get even a day of jail time! This soulless, heartless, disgusting young boy deserves to be put in jail for his racially motivated crime! This behavior is not acceptable by any means and community service will not teach this waste of human space anything! Way to show the world you're a bunch of racists who don't protect the mentally ha dicapped or those who are a different color Han you. Sick. Just sick.