[az] Arrested Nearly 1 Year Ago For Drugs, Was Released The Same Day With 0 Paper Work. Now I’ve Been Deactivated By Uber For Said Arrest 12 Months After It Happened. I Don’t Even Know If I Have A Warrant I’m Very Confused.

So on may 14th last year I was arrested after a cop found me in my car asleep with a meth pipe on my floor board. They searched the car while I was in the cop car and found a few more drugs, all very small amounts. They finger-printed me, strip-searched me, took my mug shot and put me in jail scrubs basically the whole 9 yards.

Then about 4 hours after they took me to the station they let me go and took me right back to my previously torn apart car, with 0 paperwork regarding a future court date or anything. I told the cops I was homeless when they arrested me. For a few months after that arrest I searched for information about said arrest and couldn’t ever find records that it even happened so I basically moved on and forgot about it.

I got sober and moved to Portland to get off the streets after my car got stolen. I wasn’t sure if they chose not to prosecute (the amounts they found were very small) or what but despite lots of searching for months I couldn’t find any record that I’d ever been even been arrested, let alone any court date or charge in my name.

Then I got an email from Uber eats that my account had been deactivated cause I’d now failed their background check. I’ve done more googling and now I’m finding records and I think they’ve issued a warrant but I’m not sure. My dad lives at the address on my driver’s license/ID but he’s schizophrenic and rarely checks his mail, although he usually tells me when he finds mail addressed to me. Afaik I have not been served/mailed anything (just texted my dad again and he hasn’t gotten any mail addressed to me).

I depend on the pitiful money I make from Uber eats to pay my credit card bill (I’m disabled and the schedule flexibility it offers is pretty unbeatable.), and while I have an active door dash account that I can use as a back up, if there’s a problem at Uber (which uses CheckR) there will probably be the same problem at doordash whenever they decide to do another background check because they use the same company.

From what I can see I haven’t been assigned a public defender yet (I also haven’t talked to one and I definitely can’t afford my own lawyer when I have $4 in my bank account I usually make $200 a month). Ideally I’d be able to get any charges dismissed and I have 0 priors but I was never informed of any court dates both recently by mail or a year ago when I released from jail that same day. The only info the officer gave me was his phone number to try and turn me into a snitch. I called him and told him I couldn’t help even I wanted to cause I just bought off other homeless people ¯_(ツ)_/¯

If I’m just being charged extremely late (why would they let me go if not charging me?) then why haven’t I gotten any mailers to my last known address? My phone number is still the same and no one’s called me either? I’m also no longer in Arizona so apart from the background check is there anything to fear? How do I approach this I’m really confused why there would be nothing on the online searchable records for almost a year and then the arrest (and possibly an issued warrant now?!) suddenly.

Relevant issues is that I have 0 priors. I’m really confused why I was let go the day I was arrested and now over a year later it’s showing up and I’m not sure if I’m being charged or need to go to court when I’ve gotten nothing in the mail or any form of notice? If I’m not charged then it shouldn’t be held against me on the background check for Uber right? If I am being charged then I need a lawyer which should be provided for me since my income is way below the federal poverty line no? How do I get said lawyer and take care of all of this when I’m living in a whole other state?