What does "Booking Required" mean on a court appearance summons mean?

Question

My 18 year old brother was cited in San Jose California, for some traffic Violations and a minor accident and was told by the police if he admitted to what he did, they would not press any other charges that could have stemmed from the incident. All four charges were misdemeanors, with a possible fifth for lying to the police. He admitted to the incident and they only cited him for the 4 misdemeanors.

However when he received his court appearance paper work they added an amendment stating "Booking required".

Does this mean he has to report to the jail? I told him to contact a lawyer to find out what this mean and if it means he must report immediately or if it means he should wait for the trial. But being 18 he does not think it is a big deal.

If they did decide to charge him with the charge of "Lying to the Police", is there any kind of legal recourse because he was told by the officers they would not cite him for that since he admitted to what he did?

Any advice from people who understand the Law (particularly California or San Jose law) would be gratefully accepted.

And no jokes about what will happen to him in jail, trust me, I already spent the last few hours telling them to him.

Sorry forgot, yes the summons has his appearance day (middle of March) and then it had "Amendment: booking required" written on the notice as well.

Answer 1

"Booking required" means that your brother must be "booked" by the law enforcement agency that gave him the citation prior to appearing in court. Basically, this means that they will take your brother's photograph and his fingerprints.

On infraction-level violations (speeding, running a stop sign, etc), you are NOT required to be photographed and fingerprinted, however on felonies and misdemenors (driving 100+, DUI, reckless driving, etc), you are.

What the officer did was release your brother from the scene on his "promise to appear" in court on these misdemeanors. Even though your brother didn't go to jail, he still needs to be fingerprinted and photographed because of the nature of the charges. He must do this BEFORE he goes to court (preferably ASAP).

Call San Jose Police Department, tell them that the court is requiring your brother to be booked, and find out when and where you can get that taken care of (normally, they have you go to their main office during business hours).

Once he is fingerprinted and photographed at the police station, assuming he doesn't have any warrants, he'll be sent on his way (again, with his "promise to appear" in court on his court day). Unless there is a warrant for his arrest, he will not be arrested or taken to jail. If your brother is not sure whether he has a warrant, he can call SJPD and ask (although, he'd probably know if he had a warrant).

As far as your last question goes... I'm frankly a little confused. Was he cited for lying to the police (the section would either be 148.9 PC or 31 VC)? Did the amendment or the court notice indicate that that charge was being added?

If he wasn't cited for it, and he wasn't notified that the charge was being added, then it's unlikely that he's being charged for it. If they added the charge of "lying to the police" after the citation was issued, then you are going to want to pose your question to an attorney (or to the public defender). If that fifth charge is listed on the citation, then, yes... most likely they will be charging him with that violation.

Answer 2

Not 100% sure but it probably means that he needs to say exactly when he will be there. Was there a date and time on the summons or simply a notice telling him that he would be summonsed at some point? A booking most likely means that he will get to appear in front of a judge first time instead of getting messed around and seeing a registrar then going back on another day to face a judge. Contact a law helpline, the court's free solicitor or your own lawyer.