dc, I'm not familiar with the California system. For instance, I don't know if a judge is bound by a plea bargin. In the system I am fimiliar with, he is not. It'a roll of the dice, but he almost always goes along. Does the DA have to tell you ahead of time he is going to ask for jail time? Again, I don't know. But what is more likely to happen is he will tell your attorney "if your client insists on going to trial, I'm going to ask for jail time". Just a tactic to pressure you into pleading. I agree with Scruffy, if you plead, that year of probation is BS. Although we do have "supervised" and "unsupervised" probation here. In the first, you have close scrutiny, in the second, you just have to stay out of trouble for that year. No monthly reports, visits, ect.

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