Defendant was arrested on a felony case and a minimal amout of cash was seized and being held in connection with the case...i believe in evidence.
Defendant was subsequently convicted and assessed court costs and attorney's fees for the court appointed atty.
The $ is still in the possession of the Sheriff's office......Considering filing a writ of garnishment to get it to offset the jugdment....


Is it possible to simply abstract the criminal judgment and get to the funds with a writ of execution as one mught do in a civil case...?
Seems that might be a smoother and easier process.
please excuse my ignorance......not often that a defendant actually has funds we can find and seize to repay the county.
Any help would be appreciated!
Mike

You can use regular civil lawsuit collection remedies to get stuff (if it is not exempt from civil execution, and money laying around is certainly ok to levy on, using proper procedures) to satisfy the fines in a criminal judgment.

The problem with using just a writ of execution in your scenario is that it is in the possession of a third party (sheriff) not in the possession of the debtor/defendant. Being in the possession of a third party is a classic situation for the use of a writ of garnishment, but at least you have a judgment for it already so it is a post-judgment writ of garnishment.

[Long ago I once retrieved $10,000 to satisfy a fine in a prison plus fine murder conviction; the money was in the registry of a court. I used a writ and turnover order because that sentence was on appeal. Froze that money in place throughout the appeal. When the mandate issued, the money was used to pay the fine. It was good to see a murderer pay his fine, even if he got a little help doing so through the civil process...]

See CCP Art. 42.10 and Art. 43.07.