Salt Lake County Warrants for Out of State Offenders
If you are arrested by police and charged with a criminal offense in Utah—even a seemingly minor offense—you may be under the mistaken impression that returning to your home state will place you out of reach of Utah authorities and render you immune from penalties. Nothing could be further from the truth. All out of state offenders arrested or otherwise charged with an offense in Utah are given court dates for which you are expected to appear, and failure to do so can result in warrants being issued for your arrest.
These arrest warrants will show up anywhere in the country if you are pulled over while driving or otherwise stopped by police. The police in your home state or anywhere in the country will run a check for warrants whenever you give your ID to a police officer, and the warrant from Utah will show up anywhere in the country. At this point, you will very likely be arrested on the spot.
These warrants are also likely to show up in background checks for jobs, loans, housing and other situations. You may be considered a “fugitive from justice.” In many cases, Utah prosecutors will attempt to extradite you back to Utah. This means that your local police will detain you, perhaps after a traffic stop, and you will have a hearing. If the judge rules against you in your case, you will be forcibly taken back to Utah where it is extremely likely that you will sit in jail without the possibility of bail. This could possibly be for longer than a year until your trial date arrives.