How Not To Get Arrested!
Should you go to the police station?
Should you cooperate with the police?
You
got a call from the police asking you to come down to the police station for a
few minutes to clear things up. Now, what do you do?
You may have been told by the
police that they would like to give you an opportunity to help them clear up a
few things so they can move on with their investigation and focus on the person
or persons responsible for the crime.
It is possible that they are
telling the truth but more likely, they would come to you to get information if
you're not a suspect. Chances are that they consider you a "person of
interest", in other words, a suspect.
The reason they haven't come to
you and are asking you to come to them is because they don't yet have probable
cause to make an arrest. They need probable cause to make the arrest and
they need to get it from your statements.
It's easier to have you come in
to their turf where they can more easily question you for a longer period of
time and more easily manipulate the questioning.
Your best bet is to say "I'm
sorry, I can't come in to answer questions without a lawyer".
I will illustrate two true
examples of which I am familiar:
1) I received a call from a
friend of mine who told me that she received a call from a detective asking her
to bring her son in to help out by answering a few questions.
Her son was working at
McDonald's and was promoted to Assistant Manager. When he was promoted, he
requested that the combination to the store safe be changed because there were
too many people who knew the combination and no longer have permission to access
the safe. The combination was not changed and a few days later, a little
over $2,000 was missing from the safe. The police were called and my
friend received that telephone call.
I called the detective who knew
me because I was an Auxiliary Police Officer in the same police precinct.
Because he knew me, he tried to speak to me in a very friendly manner asking for
my help. I explained that unfortunately I have to separate my role as a
criminal defense lawyer from that as an Auxiliary Police Officer and
consequently, I could not allow my client to come in for questioning.
I told him that he should come
and arrest my client if he has probable cause but we would not come to the
police station unless he advised that he did have probable cause and would make
the arrest without questioning.
The detective stated that the
"evidence" they had was a statement by the manager that my client was concerned
about money being stolen from the safe and therefore he must have done it.
The detective admitted he probably would have arrested my client if he had come
in.
The police are experts at
asking questions in such a way to get you to make statements giving them
probable cause. They are often so good at it, because they have done it so
many times, that they don't even realize how good they are.
My client never spoke with the
detective and that was the last time we ever heard from them and that was years
ago.
2) Someone I know was working
at a bar as a bouncer when he heard an altercation outside between some patrons
who were being evicted by another bouncer. He went outside and at some
point drew his licensed pistol, firing it at the patron who was shot in the back
of his thigh.
The bouncer felt he was
defending himself and had nothing to hide so he operated with the police and
went back to the police station to give a statement. Not happy with his
statement, they kept him there for 12 hours. Finally, they got what they
want wrote it up and had him sign it. He was promptly arrested and charged
with several serious crimes.
The bouncer was lucky because
the judge dismissed all the charges and admonished the prosecutor for improper
behavior. However, there are two lessons to be learned here.
First, he should not have gone
back to the police station to give a statement.
Second, he should never have
sat there talking to the police for 12 hours. He told me that he didn't
know that he had a choice. He could've said "arrest me or I'm leaving", "I
don't want to talk without a lawyer" or "I don't want to talk any longer and I
want a
criminal
defense lawyer immediately".
Don't Believe What the Police Tell You
It is legal for the police to lie to get you to make an admission.
The police have a goal. That
goal is to get probable cause and to get you to give it to them. The police will often tell you
that if you talk now, it will make things much easier for you (it will really make things much easier for them).
The police may tell you that your friend has already confessed or is blaming
you. They can tell you anything they want.
Find a Criminal Lawyer
Read:
"How to Get Arrested When in Your Car"
"How
to Get Arrested When You Have Drugs in the Car"
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