What Happens When You Get Charged Federally
What Happens When You Get Charged Federally
FBI agents are at your door. Or you got a letter from the Department of Justice calling you a “target.” Or federal prosecutors just indicted you and now there’s a warrant. You’re in New York – Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens – and you’re terrified because you’ve heard federal charges are worse than state charges, federal prosecutors never lose, federal prison has no parole. You don’t understand the timeline, what happens at each court appearance, whether you’ll be held without bail for months while your case drags on. Constitutional protections exist precisely for this moment – when government power confronts individual liberty. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel, the presumption of innocence, the right to trial – these aren’t abstractions. They’re the only barriers between aggressive federal prosecution and wrongful conviction.
Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group – a second-generation law firm managed by Todd Spodek, who has defended clients in federal court for many, many years. We’ve represented people in situations exactly like yours: wire fraud investigations, drug trafficking charges, lying to federal agents, federal indictments that destroy lives if not handled correctly. This is what actually happens in the next 72 hours, the next six months, the next year of your life.
First 72 Hours
If federal agents arrest you, they take you into custody immediately – handcuffs, fingerprints, photographed, held in federal detention. Within 48 hours if you’re arrested on a weekday, 72 hours if arrested over a weekend, you appear before a federal magistrate judge for initial appearance. This isn’t arraignment. This is when the judge advises you of the charges against you, appoints counsel if you can’t afford an attorney, and makes the initial bail decision. Most people don’t realize how much harder it is to get bail in federal court compared to state court. The Bail Reform Act of 1984 fundamentally changed federal detention – it created presumptions of detention for certain offenses, shifted the burden, gave prosecutors enormous leverage before your case even starts. At that initial appearance, the magistrate judge either releases you on conditions, detains you pending a detention hearing scheduled within days, or – rarely – releases you on bond. If you’re charged with drug trafficking, violent crimes, or offenses involving firearms, the Bail Reform Act presumes you should be detained. The government must still prove it by clear and convincing evidence, but that presumption matters. Prosecutors argue you’re a flight risk or danger to the community. Your attorney argues you have ties to the community, family here, employment, no criminal history. The judge weighs factors federal courts consider for pretrial release: nature of the offense, weight of evidence against you, your criminal history, whether you’ll appear for trial.
The Detention Decision
This is the make-or-break moment most people don’t understand until it’s too late. If the judge detains you pending trial, you’re held in a federal detention center – MDC Brooklyn, MCC Manhattan, wherever the Bureau of Prisons designates – for the next six to eighteen months while your case proceeds. Being detained pretrial makes it exponentially harder to prepare your defense. You can’t meet with your attorney freely, can’t gather documents, can’t work with investigators. Studies show defendants detained pretrial receive harsher sentences than those released, even after controlling for offense severity and criminal history. Prosecutors know this. That’s why they fight so hard to detain you – detention creates pressure to plead guilty just to end the detention. The constitutional tension is obvious: presumption of innocence versus preventive detention. The framers didn’t envision a system where defendants spend months or years in jail before conviction. But the Bail Reform Act of 1984 authorized exactly that – judges can order detention based on predicted future dangerousness, not just flight risk. When prosecutors argue you’re dangerous, they’re not required to prove you committed the charged offense. They just need clear and convincing evidence you pose a danger if released. That’s a lower standard than proof beyond reasonable doubt required for conviction. So you can be jailed for months based on allegations, not convictions.
You’ve probably heard about the Speedy Trial Act – federal law requiring trial within 70 days of indictment or initial appearance, whichever comes later. Sounds like your case will resolve quickly. Except the Speedy Trial Act contains so many exclusions that the 70-day requirement becomes meaningless in practice. Every pretrial motion your attorney files? Pauses the clock. Every continuance? Pauses the clock. Every time the judge grants an “ends of justice” delay? Pauses the clock. Competency evaluations, interlocutory appeals, plea negotiations – all excluded from the 70-day calculation. Real timeline in federal court: six to twelve months for straightforward cases like drug possession or simple fraud, eighteen to twenty-four months for complex white-collar prosecutions involving multiple defendants and thousands of documents. During that time, you’re going through discovery – the government turns over evidence, your attorney reviews it, identifies weaknesses. Then pretrial motions: suppress evidence obtained through illegal searches, dismiss charges for prosecutorial misconduct, challenge the indictment’s legal sufficiency. Each motion takes weeks or months to brief and argue. Prosecutors use this time strategically. If you’re detained, every month in jail increases pressure to accept whatever plea deal they’re offering. If you’re released, they use the delay to build more evidence, flip cooperators, strengthen their case.
Why 98% Plead Guilty
Only 2% of federal criminal cases go to trial. The other 98% end in guilty pleas. That’s not because 98% of defendants are actually guilty and just accept responsibility. It’s because the trial penalty – the dramatically harsher sentence you receive if convicted at trial versus pleading guilty – coerces pleas. The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers documented this: average sentence after trial is roughly three times higher than after pleading guilty for the same offense. Sometimes the difference is seven to nine additional years.
Why does the trial penalty exist? Plea agreements involve charge bargaining – you plead to fewer counts, government dismisses others. They involve sentencing stipulations – both sides agree to recommend a specific guideline range to the judge. They include cooperation credit – if you provide substantial assistance, prosecutors file a 5K1.1 motion asking for downward departure. They offer acceptance of responsibility – plead guilty early, you get a two or three level reduction in the sentencing guidelines, which translates to months or years off your sentence. Go to trial and you get none of that. You’re convicted on all counts, no cooperation credit, no acceptance reduction. Federal conviction rate at trial exceeds 90% because federal prosecutors only indict cases they’re confident winning.
The American Bar Association called the trial penalty unconstitutional coercion in 2023. Doesn’t matter. It persists because prosecutors have the power, judges follow the guidelines, and defendants face impossible choices. When your attorney tells you the plea offer is eighteen months but trial risk is six years, that’s not really a choice – that’s extortion dressed up as criminal justice. Your Sixth Amendment right to trial exists in theory. In practice, exercising it destroys you.
Three to four months after you plead guilty or get convicted at trial, you face sentencing. Probation prepares a Presentence Investigation Report calculating your Federal Sentencing Guidelines range based on offense level and criminal history category. Mandatory minimums override the guidelines for drug trafficking and gun offenses – five, ten, or twenty years for drugs depending on quantity; five, seven, or ten years for firearms depending on your prior record. Judges have discretion after United States v. Booker made guidelines advisory, but they still follow them in most cases. Departures require specific findings, variances require justification. You’re not getting probation for serious federal charges. Federal prison means serving 85% of your sentence minimum – no parole exists in the federal system. Supervised release follows prison: two to five years of probation-like conditions, reporting to a probation officer, travel restrictions, employment requirements. Restitution and fines come on top of prison time. The Bureau of Prisons determines which facility based on security classification, program availability, proximity to family. Minimum security camps for nonviolent offenders, low security for most, medium and high security for violent crimes. Todd Spodek has defended clients in federal court throughout his career – SDNY, EDNY, district courts across the country.
Call 212-300-5196.
NJ CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS