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RCW 9A.76.190

Failure to appear or surrender—Affirmative defense—Penalty.

Known as the Washington Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 9A.04.010 to 9A.98.020 (401 sections).

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case State of Washington v. Joyce Aspen Hoffman (2021)

Most recently applied in State Of Washington, Respondent/cross-app. V. Daniel Joseph Widders, Sr., Appellant/cross- Resp. (May 2025)

2020 c 19 s 2.

How often courts cite this section

2020202510
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1)(a) A person is guilty of failure to appear or surrender if he or she is released by court order or admitted to bail, has received written notice of the requirement of a subsequent personal appearance before any court of this state or of the requirement to report to a correctional facility for service of sentence, and fails to appear or fails to surrender for service of sentence as required; and

(b)(i) Within thirty days of the issuance of a warrant for failure to appear or surrender, does not make a motion with the court to quash the warrant, and if a motion is made under this subsection, he or she does not appear before the court with respect to the motion; or

(ii) Has had a prior warrant issued based on a prior incident of failure to appear or surrender for the present cause for which he or she is being held or charged or has been convicted.

(2) It is an affirmative defense to a prosecution under this section that uncontrollable circumstances prevented the person from appearing or surrendering, that the person did not contribute to the creation of such circumstances by negligently disregarding the requirement to appear or surrender, and that the person appeared or surrendered as soon as such circumstances ceased to exist.

(3) Failure to appear or surrender is:

(a) A gross misdemeanor if the person was held for, charged with, or convicted of a felony; or

(b) A misdemeanor if the person was held for, charged with, or convicted of a gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.