To be charged with failure to appear, the defendant must have been released from custody on the condition to appear.

• A. True
• B. False
• C. Only if bail is posted
• D. Only if the offense has been proven

Answer: (A)

Failure to appear hinges on having a duty to appear that was created by release from custody. When someone is released under a condition to appear in court—whether on bail, a bond, or a promise to appear—that obligation becomes a requirement to return for the scheduled proceedings. If they then willfully do not show up, a failure-to-appear charge is warranted. If the person was never released to appear—still in custody or under no appearance condition—there is no breach of an appearance obligation to base a failure-to-appear charge on. So the statement is true: the offense rests on having been released from custody with a condition to appear. Bail conditions are a common way this obligation is created, but the essential point is the release with an appearance duty, not whether bail was posted or other details.