What to Do If You Get Arrested in Ventura County

If you or someone you love has just been arrested, take a breath. As bad as things seem right now, there is always a path forward — I have spent 30 years guiding people through this exact moment, and what feels like the end of the world on day one very often ends in a dismissal, a diversion, or a reduction nobody thought possible. But the decisions made in the first hours and days genuinely matter. Here is the best advice I can give you, stage by stage.

During the Arrest: The Two Sentences That Protect You

Do not resist — even if the arrest is wrong. You will not win an argument, or a struggle, with police on the street, and resisting only adds charges. The place to fight an unlawful arrest is in court, where I can actually win it.

Then say these two sentences, politely, and nothing more: “I am invoking my right to remain silent. I want a lawyer.”That’s it. Not “I didn’t do anything,” not your side of the story, not answers to “just a few questions.” Two truths about police questioning that most people learn too late:

You cannot talk your way out of an arrest. The decision has been made. Anything you say now is evidence — and officers are trained to collect not just confessions but inconsistencies, because an innocent misstatement can be made to look like a lie in front of a jury.
Silence is not guilt, and it cannot be used against you once you’ve invoked. Innocent people need lawyers precisely because they assume the truth will protect them. It’s the talking that convicts.

Do not consent to searches. If police ask permission to search your car, your phone, or your home, the answer is “I do not consent to a search.” If they search anyway, don’t interfere — but your refusal preserves my ability to challenge it later. Consent waives some of your most powerful defenses.

One myth to discard: if the police didn’t read you your Miranda rights, your case is not automatically dismissed. Miranda only affects whether certain statements can be used. So don’t relax because no one read you your rights — and don’t despair if they did.

In Custody: The Walls Have Ears

Jail phone calls are recorded — all of them, except properly placed calls with your attorney. Do not discuss the facts of your case with anyone on a jail phone, including your spouse, your parents, or your best friend. “Don’t talk about the case, just get me a lawyer” is the entire conversation.
Do not discuss your case with cellmates. Jailhouse informants are real, and they trade information for leniency.
You can and should answer routine booking questions — name, date of birth, address. That isn’t interrogation.
Be patient and polite with jail staff. It costs nothing and helps everything.

Getting Out: Bail, OR, and Release

Depending on the charge, you may be cited and released, released on your own recognizance (“OR”), or held on bail. Two pieces of practical advice families rarely get:

For serious charges, talk to an attorney before automatically posting bail. Bail can often be reduced — or OR release granted — at arraignment, and on a high bail that can save a family thousands of dollars in non-refundable bond premiums. Sometimes posting immediately is right; sometimes waiting one court day is smarter. It’s worth a free phone call before signing with a bondsman.
If bail is the right move, a licensed bail agent can have someone out within hours. See my Getting a Bail Bond page for how that works.

Court timing in Ventura County: if you remain in custody, you must be arraigned quickly — generally within 48 court hours. If you’re released, the first court date is typically about a week out on felonies and roughly thirty days out on misdemeanors. That window is not dead time — it’s when the most valuable defense work happens.

After Release: Protect Your Case

Write everything down now, while it’s fresh: the timeline, what officers said and did, what you said, who was present. Memory fades fast and details win cases.
Preserve evidence. Photos of injuries, the scene, your vehicle; clothing (unwashed); receipts; texts; and the names and numbers of every witness. Surveillance video gets erased on short cycles — sometimes in days — so tell me about any cameras immediately.
Stay off social media. Don’t post about the incident, the arrest, or anything inconsistent with your situation. Prosecutors read it all. Don’t delete past posts either — that can be its own problem. Just go quiet.
Do not contact the alleged victim or witnesses. Especially in domestic violence cases with a protective order: a single text — even an apology, even “can we talk?” — can be a new crime and the strongest evidence in the case. If contact matters, it happens through counsel, properly.
Don’t talk to investigators, insurance adjusters, or anyone who “just wants your side” — and beware the emotionally charged phone call from the accuser asking you to apologize. Pretext calls are recorded, with a detective listening. Assume any unexpected call about the incident is one.
Start the quiet repair work. Depending on the case: enroll in counseling or treatment before anyone orders it, gather work and character references, address restitution. Walking into court already having done the work gives the judge and DA a reason to say yes — and it’s exactly the record that supports judicial diversion, which in Ventura County can end many misdemeanor cases with no conviction at all.

If It’s a DUI: One Deadline Cannot Wait

You have 10 days from arrest to request a DMV hearing, or your license will be suspended automatically. This is the single most unforgiving deadline in criminal law. See my DUI/DWI page — and call me before the ten days run.

For Family Members

If you’re reading this because someone you love is in custody: don’t discuss the facts on jail calls, don’t make decisions about bail in a panic, and get an attorney involved before the first court date — at arraignment I can address bail, protective orders, and release conditions all at once, and on misdemeanors your loved one will often never need to appear in court at all.

Then Make the Call That Changes the Trajectory

The single best thing you can do after an arrest is get experienced local counsel working immediately — preserving video, contacting witnesses, managing the DMV clock, and sometimes reaching the DA’s filing deputy before charges are even finalized. I have spent 30 years and more than 20,000 court appearances in the Ventura County courthouse, and I will tell you honestly, in plain English, what you’re facing and what I’d do about it — including a flat fee quote, so there are no surprises.

Call me at 805-889-9000, any hour, any day. I answer my own phone — no secretary, no paralegal, no associate. Free consultation. Serving Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and all of Ventura County.