Being arrested is never expected. Most people are going about their day, maybe in an argument at home or dealing with a noise complaint at a hotel, when the police show up. What happens next, from the knock on the door to the ride to jail and the first court date, follows a pattern that catches most people off guard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Arrested in Myrtle Beach? Everything You Need to Know About What to Expect
Whenever somebody is arrested, it’s never expected. Usually people are minding their own business. They might be in an argument with their spouse, or the neighbors maybe complained about something if they’re staying in a hotel. Here’s what happens. There’s a knock on the door, and the police are knocking, unexpectedly. There’s a decision to make right then.
The police cannot usually just charge into a house, apartment, condo, or hotel room and arrest someone out of a residence or dwelling without a warrant. So one of the things they’ll do is say, “Do you mind stepping outside here and talking to us?” Once someone steps outside, that changes everything, and the police do this intentionally.
The flip side is they want to get inside, so they’ll ask, “Is it okay if we come inside and talk to you?” Saying yes is basically consenting to a search of the hotel room or house, and that’s the way it’s going to read in the report.
Some of the best answers here are counterintuitive, which is don’t answer the door. If the door doesn’t open, the police have a serious problem, because they can’t kick it down without justifying it, and there are only certain situations where that’s allowable.
Human nature being what it is and police tactics being what they are, the way police knock on the door is usually very violent and loud, pounding on the door as if they’re going to knock it in, yelling, “Police, open up.” So most people think they’re being commanded to do something, and most people open the door.
According to the Constitution, the police are not supposed to be able to just arrest someone; there’s a warrant requirement. However, over time, the U.S. Supreme Court and state supreme courts have pretty much done away with that, because police can arrest someone without a warrant if they have probable cause to believe that person committed a felony.
Probable cause is not a very high standard, just a basis for believing a felony was committed, and a felony could be almost anything. Police can also arrest someone without a warrant if they see that person commit a misdemeanor in their presence.
The third category, which is kind of the catch-all for everything and was really developed out of DUI investigations, is a misdemeanor “freshly committed,” a kind of magic language applied when there were certain characteristics suggesting it was obvious the offense had just happened. This is the one that’s abused the most.
Chances are, when the police are talking to someone, everything said and done is being video and audio recorded, because police in most jurisdictions have these recording devices, called body cams.
People often say, “well, they didn’t read me my rights,” but when police are just standing there talking and someone is answering questions, that’s preliminary, not an interrogation, and whatever is said will be used against that person in court, even without Miranda warnings.
Police have to give Miranda warnings once someone has a right to a lawyer and a right to remain silent, which happens once someone is handcuffed. At that point, anything said can and will be used against that person in court.
After being handcuffed, someone is usually taken down and put in the back of a patrol car, and many times there’s also a camera pointed right at the back seat there. Since the person has already been read their rights and isn’t being questioned, anything said, even thoughts said out loud to oneself, will be used against that person.
From there, if the arrest happens in Myrtle Beach, there’s a jail not too far from any part of the city, about a 10-minute ride. If the arrest happens just outside the city, it’s a 35-minute ride out to the J. Reuben Long Detention Center.
There’s also a jail in North Myrtle Beach, and one in Surfside, though it isn’t used. At the county jail, people are stripped, examined, put in a jail suit, photographed, fingerprinted, and booked, then parked somewhere before being put in a cell. At the Myrtle Beach or North Myrtle Beach jail, people are left in their regular street clothes.
Everything is taken, all medications, wallet, driver’s license, purse, earrings, watch, and phone, and put into property, so people who are wondering where someone is have no way to know unless they already have the phone number, since the person won’t have their phone. The night is spent in a cell with a bed made out of a piece of steel or sheet metal with a thin mattress and one blanket, maybe a pillow, maybe not, usually not.
In the morning comes a kind of perp walk, lining people up and marching them down a hall into a courtroom. A judge comes in, states the charges, may ask a couple of things but generally doesn’t, usually says don’t say anything, and then sets a bond amount. Forms are signed, and that’s the bond hearing, bond either set or denied with certain conditions, though the person is generally in a state of confusion at that point.
In the city of Myrtle Beach, the hearing happens over video, so family in the courtroom won’t be seen, and a lawyer can be heard but not seen. In North Myrtle Beach, the judge goes down to the jail and sets bond across a table without ever going into the courtroom. Once bond is set, it has to be posted, meaning money has to be put up, before release.
If charged with a felony, confusing papers are given out along with so-called court dates and a request for preliminary hearing, and then release follows. Many times when people get out of jail and get their property back, their phone is dead with no charger. If a car was involved, it’s been towed, and figuring out where it is and how to get to it becomes its own problem.
There are 10 days to request a preliminary hearing, which is simply filling out a form. The other court date is called a first appearance or initial appearance, which seems like something’s going to happen but really isn’t court, it’s a show-up date mainly to find out if someone has a lawyer, followed by being told to come back in about six weeks.
At that six-week date, it’s still not court, still just a courthouse with people and no judge, either trying to get a guilty plea or explaining that a plea offer isn’t ready yet, with notification to come back to court again after that.
In South Carolina, if someone is arrested in Myrtle Beach and charged with something like an open container violation along with a felony charge such as brandishing a weapon, there’s one court date in the city of Myrtle Beach, usually written on a blue traffic ticket, and separate court papers for the felony charges, meaning two so-called court dates in two different cities on different dates.
It’s very easy to miss one, since after getting the papers, it’s easy to overlook that there’s another court date on a different paper entirely.
Without a lawyer, it can be pretty hard to even figure out court dates. Public defenders do a pretty good job of trying to keep people informed, but it’s difficult because they represent thousands and thousands of people.
Hiring a lawyer generally means better attention to making sure someone knows where to go, when to go, and whether an appearance can be excused, which matters a lot for people who live elsewhere and would otherwise have to come back three or four times, which is time consuming and requires getting off work, traveling, and staying in a hotel.
Once retained, a lawyer gets discovery on the case by filing a motion, and that evidence gets reviewed to show what the options are and figure out what kind of case the state has. Before that, an investigation is done as well, talking with the client to find out who they are and every good thing about them, since nothing good is written in the police report, everything in the report is skewed to make someone look like a criminal.
That information is compared to the evidence the state provides to work out hopefully a dismissal, since a lot of cases get dismissed if handled appropriately. If not dismissed, the decision becomes whether to plead to something or go to trial.
Most cases don’t go to trial, in part because most people represented are really not trial-worthy since they’re not criminals, most have never been arrested before, are good people, and contribute to society. In those circumstances, a pretty good result is usually possible, meaning no jail time, no felony conviction, and hopefully not even a misdemeanor conviction.
With decades of experience and a background as a former prosecutor, Greg McCollum brings insight from both sides of the courtroom to every case handled by the Complete Legal Defense Team in South Carolina.
If you have questions about what to expect after an arrest in Myrtle Beach, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.
