After 35 years of walking into Connecticut courthouses, I’ve heard every myth in the book. Clients often walk into my office thinking a case disappears because they’re a “good person” or because the “victim changed their mind.“

In the real world of the Connecticut State’s Attorney’s office, it doesn’t work like that. Prosecutors don’t drop cases out of the goodness of their hearts; they drop them because of leverage and risk management.

Let me tell you something most people don’t realize. Your phone, your car, and the apps you use every single day are actively tracking where you are.

As a criminal defense attorney who has spent decades fighting in Connecticut courtrooms, one of the most frequent questions I get from clients is, “Can the police see where I’ve been?”

Have a seat. I know you’re stressed out right now. You just got arrested, and the first thing you said when you walked in here was, “Allan, I wasn’t even driving! How can they charge me with a DUI?”

I hear this every single week. You decided to be responsible. You felt impaired, you pulled over into a parking lot to sleep it off, and suddenly, there is a flashlight shining in your window, and you are leaving in handcuffs. It feels like a setup.

In many of the Connecticut criminal cases I handle today, the evidence doesn’t start with a traffic stop, a search warrant, or a confession. It starts with a screenshot. A single text message, a direct message, a Snapchat image, or a piece of a Facebook argument saved on someone’s phone can quickly become the center of a police investigation.

But can the police really arrest and charge you based on nothing more than screenshots?

When the police hand you or a loved one release paperwork that says “Non-Surety Bond,” the first reaction is usually panic. You are probably wondering how you are going to come up with a thousand dollars cash right this second, or if you need to start calling bail bondsmen in the middle of the night.

Take a breath. That is not how a non-surety bond works in Connecticut.

When a prosecutor makes a plea offer in a Connecticut criminal case, it is not random. It is not personal. And it is rarely about sympathy.

It is about leverage. In Connecticut courts — whether in Stamford, Bridgeport, Hartford, or elsewhere in the Superior Court system — every plea offer is a calculated risk assessment. The prosecutor is weighing the strength of the evidence, your background, the statutory limits of the charge, the availability of diversion programs, and the risk of trial.