Vanderburgh County Warrant Search: How to Find Out If You Have a Warrant and What to Do Next

· Written By Jerry L. Garner

Most people who run a Vanderburgh County warrant search are not idly curious. They have a reason to think there is a warrant with their name on it: a court date that slipped, a letter that never arrived, a relative who saw a name on a list, a police visit to an old address. If that is you, in Evansville or anywhere else in Southern Indiana, this post covers where to look, what the different kinds of warrant mean under Indiana law, and why the order of your next steps matters more than their speed.

The short version: find out for certain, do not drive around with the question open, and call a defense lawyer before you walk into the jail lobby. A warrant is a court’s written order to bring you before it. How that happens, on terms arranged in advance or at the side of the road, is still open until the day it is served.

How to Find Out If You Have a Warrant in Vanderburgh County

There are two official places to look, and neither costs anything.

The first is the Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office warrant search, a public list of the warrants the office holds, searchable by name. Two things the office itself says about that list matter here. It is not confirmation: the list is updated through the day, but only the Sheriff’s Office can confirm that a warrant is valid. And entries can be old; the office notes that some are more than a decade old, and that, as a rule, a warrant stays active until it is served or the court that issued it calls it back.

The second is MyCase, the Indiana courts’ free public case search. It covers every public case in the courts that use the state’s case management system, which is most of them, and shows each case’s chronological case summary, the court’s running record of what has been filed and scheduled. If a criminal case was filed against you in Vanderburgh County and you did not know it, this is where it shows, along with the hearing you may already have missed.

What neither site can do is tell you what to do about it. And one way of checking is worse than not checking: phoning the jail to ask whether you are wanted. That call tells the office who you are and that you know about the warrant, and it settles nothing.

A defense attorney can check for you. A warrant is a written order that must name the person, state the offense, give the date and county it was issued, and specify the bail amount if any (IC 35-33-2-2), so a lawyer can learn not only whether one exists but what it is for and what it will take to be released, without you standing at a counter to ask.

Warrick, Spencer and Perry Counties

The Warrick County Sheriff’s Office links a public warrants list from its own website. Not every county publishes one, and a name missing from one county’s list is not proof there is no warrant, because a warrant may be served by any law enforcement officer, not only the sheriff it was issued to (IC 35-33-2-3). MyCase covers the courts of all four counties, and a lawyer can check with the court directly in any of them. We represent clients in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, and Perry counties.

What Kind of Warrant Is It?

Indiana law does not use the words most people use. The Code speaks of a warrant of arrest and, in one place, a rearrest warrant. Bench warrant, the phrase you will hear for the one issued when someone misses court, is the everyday name rather than a statutory category. In practice there are three documents you might be dealing with, and they lead to different next steps.

An Arrest Warrant on a New Charge

When a charge is filed against a person who is not already in custody, the court issues a warrant for that person’s arrest (IC 35-33-2-1). On a charge filed by the prosecutor, the court must first determine that probable cause exists; on a grand jury indictment, the warrant issues on the indictment itself. Either way, no arrest warrant may issue until a charge has been filed, so a warrant on a new charge means a criminal case already exists with your name on it.

The warrant must be in writing, set out the nature of the offense, state the date and county of issuance, specify the bail amount if any, and command that you be arrested and brought before the court without unnecessary delay (IC 35-33-2-2).

Whether it expires depends on the charge. A warrant of arrest for a misdemeanor expires one hundred eighty days after it is issued; a warrant of arrest for a felony does not (IC 35-33-2-4). Before anyone reads that as a reason to wait, the same section says that when a misdemeanor warrant expires the clerk notifies the prosecuting attorney, and on the prosecutor’s request the court shall issue another one. The case does not expire with the warrant.

A Bench Warrant for Missing Court

If you were released on bail and then knowingly and intentionally failed to appear, IC 35-33-8-8 spells out what the court does, and none of it is discretionary. The court shall issue a warrant for your arrest. It may not release you on personal recognizance. And it may not set bail for the rearrest below the greater of your original bail or two thousand five hundred dollars, in the form of a surety bond or the full amount in cash.

That rearrest warrant does not expire, whatever the underlying charge (IC 35-33-2-4). It is the warrant most people searching for themselves are worried about, and the one where calling a lawyer before surrendering changes the most, because the bail floor is written into the statute and the terms of your release are back on the table.

A Summons Instead of a Warrant

On a misdemeanor charge, the court may issue a summons instead of an arrest warrant: a written command to appear at a stated time and place, at least seven days out, served the way a civil summons is (IC 35-33-4-1). A summons is not a warrant, and nobody is coming to arrest you on it. But the same section says that if you fail without good cause to appear as commanded, the court shall issue a warrant of arrest, and it may do so at once if it is satisfied you will not appear. Ignoring a summons is also its own offense, failure to respond to a summons, a Class C misdemeanor (IC 35-44.1-2-10).

What Happens While a Warrant Is Active

An arrest warrant is issued to the sheriff of the county where the charge was filed, but it may be served, and an arrest made on it, by any law enforcement officer, on any day of the week, at any time of the day or night (IC 35-33-2-3). That is the plain reason a warrant changes daily life. A traffic stop for a burnt-out tail light becomes an arrest when the officer runs your name, and so does any other contact with police, however unrelated. Plate-reading cameras add a route that needs no violation at all; we have written about how Flock cameras flag vehicles for police. And if officers come to a home to execute a warrant and are not admitted after announcing who they are and why they are there, the statute allows them to break open a door or window (IC 35-33-2-3).

Once arrested, you are delivered to the sheriff of the county where the charge was filed, who either commits you to jail or holds you to bail (IC 35-33-2-3). Which of those it is depends largely on what was arranged beforehand.

Failure to Appear Is Its Own Charge

Missing court after being released on bail is not only a procedural problem. Under IC 35-44.1-2-9, a person released on condition of appearing at a specified time and place who intentionally fails to appear commits failure to appear, a Class A misdemeanor, and it is a Level 6 felony if the charge was a felony. The statute closes the obvious escape: it is no defense that you were never convicted of the original charge. Where each of those sits on the sentencing scale is covered in our guides to Indiana’s misdemeanor classes and to Level 6 felonies.

There is a financial side as well. Failing to appear at a critical stage of the case is one of the grounds on which the court may revoke bail (IC 35-33-8-5), and a bond can be declared forfeited, with judgment entered against you for its amount, unless the court finds there was justification for the absence (IC 35-33-8-7). So one missed date can produce three separate consequences: a new charge, the loss of the bond, and a rearrest warrant whose bail may not be set below the original amount.

What to Do Next: Call Before You Turn Yourself In

When this office takes on your defense on the underlying charge, the warrant is the first thing dealt with, because nothing else about the case can be worked on while you can be arrested at any stop. Resolving it is part of the defense, not a separate errand.

First, we find out exactly what the warrant is, which court issued it, and what bail is written on it. Second, where the facts support it, we ask the court to alter that bail; the statute lets either side seek an alteration of bail on a showing of good cause (IC 35-33-8-5), and bail may not be set higher than the amount reasonably required to assure your appearance or to protect the safety of others (IC 35-33-8-4). Third, we arrange the surrender itself, so that the time, the place, and the bond are settled before you arrive rather than sorted out from a holding cell. The Sheriff’s Office publishes its own guidance on surrendering, and which route fits depends on the charge and the court.

Three things not to do while that is being arranged:

  • Do not drive around with the question open; any stop can become the arrest
  • Do not call the jail to ask about yourself
  • Do not surrender first and call second, because once you are in custody the bail written on the warrant is the bail you are held on until a court changes it

None of this promises a particular result. A court may keep the bail where it is, and on a rearrest warrant the statute sets a floor no motion can go under. What changes is who controls the timing, and whether the first thing the court hears about you is a lawyer’s motion or a booking sheet.

Jerry L. Garner spent years as an FBI Special Agent before moving into criminal defense. A warrant is the point where an investigation turns into custody, and having spent a career on the side that builds cases is a useful vantage point for judging what the state’s file holds and how the surrender should go.

He represents clients throughout Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, and Perry counties, from the Evansville area to Rockport, Tell City, and Boonville.

Contact Us for Help

If you think there is a warrant with your name on it in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, or Perry County, the order of your next steps matters. Call our office at (812) 301-6221 or contact us online before you go to the jail, and we will find out what the warrant is, what it will take to resolve it, and how to surrender on terms settled in advance. The first consultation is free.

Remember: a warrant does not clear itself, a felony warrant never expires, and the Sheriff’s list is not confirmation either way. Find out for certain, and make the call before a traffic stop makes it for you.

This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is unique, and outcomes depend on specific circumstances. Contact our office to discuss your particular situation.