re: If Saban lets Deionte Thompson play he is a TPOS

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I do think different states and even individual court districts operate differently. For example, in Tuscaloosa, preliminaries are generally not even given .

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This is also true, and I won't deny that. For instance, when I worked as a prosecutor, I was working out of Georgia. In Georgia, all felonies are dealt with by the DA's office and misdemeanors by the Solictor's Office. If we didn't think we had a basis to support a felony but could support a misdemeanor, they were kicked downstairs. Most of the time these types of cases were those involving drugs where the threshold for a misdemeanor was an ounce. Other common reasons were, oddly enough, the difference between simple assault and agg assault. But if we didn't have the evidence already in hand to fit the statute, then we would not even prepare an indictment to be presented to the GJ. At GJ hearings, most of the time the only witness who testified, was an officer; however, he had to support his basis for the charges through evidence he gathered (and yes, this includes hearsay evidence of eye witness testimony).

In Tennessee, where I currently work, although I no longer do criminal work because, quite frankly, I hated criminal defense work, every case starts in General Sessions. If a case is not resolved in general sessions, it gets bound over to the GJ and Criminal Court. General sessions cannot take felony pleas but they can negotiate them. If they successfully negotiate a plea in GS for a felony, they will do what is called a plea by information, where they send the offer upstairs to actually enter it.

In Tennessee, if a case is indicted, you'll have another "plea phase," and you'll get new DAs to work with, so sometimes you'll get a better offer. So yeah, attorneys will use that as strategy. And yes, this is where you can file Motions to Dismiss or other pre-trial motions.