Got Arrested or Charged with a Crime - What Now?
by
Roy D Cole on May. 05, 2017
Criminal Felony Criminal Misdemeanor Criminal DUI-DWI
Summary: How to handle a criminal charge and investigation
When confronted by police, first be polite, but remember to ask for your attorney.
then remember these ten rules:
1. Talking to the police cannot and will not help you. They are talking to you because they suspect you have committed a crime.
2. Even if you did it and they tell you it will make you feel better if you get it off your chest, which it may, the punishment may be more than you think it will be.
3. Innocent or guilty a small white lie can be taken out of context and lead them to convict you of a crime.
4. You may guess a detail which may mislead them to think it was you and lead to your conviction.
5. The police will never remember nor record your statement with 100% accuracy and that little bit can make a big difference.
6. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth, and your entire statement is videotaped so that the police don’t have to rely on their memory, an innocent person can still make some innocent assumption about a fact or state some detail about the case they overheard on the way to the police station, and the police will assume that they only way the suspect could have known that fact or that detail was if he was, in fact, guilty.
7. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth in your statement, and you give the police no information that can be used against you, and the whole statement is videotaped, a suspect’s answers can still be used against him if the police (through no fault of their own) have any evidence that any of the suspect’s statements are false (even if they are really true).
8. The police have no authority to make deals in exchange for confessions, so any promise is a lie, there is nothing they can do to grant leniency, reduce charges or even help you avoid jail/prison.
9. Assume you are guilty - you may not realize that you have a defense to the commission of a crime and there may be things that reduce your guilt.
10. It is very hard to tell the same story twice in exactly the same way, even the innocent never tell the story the same way two times. If you tell it two different ways there will be gaps a prosecutor can use to convict you.
then remember these ten rules:
1. Talking to the police cannot and will not help you. They are talking to you because they suspect you have committed a crime.
2. Even if you did it and they tell you it will make you feel better if you get it off your chest, which it may, the punishment may be more than you think it will be.
3. Innocent or guilty a small white lie can be taken out of context and lead them to convict you of a crime.
4. You may guess a detail which may mislead them to think it was you and lead to your conviction.
5. The police will never remember nor record your statement with 100% accuracy and that little bit can make a big difference.
6. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth, and your entire statement is videotaped so that the police don’t have to rely on their memory, an innocent person can still make some innocent assumption about a fact or state some detail about the case they overheard on the way to the police station, and the police will assume that they only way the suspect could have known that fact or that detail was if he was, in fact, guilty.
7. Even if you’re innocent, and you only tell the truth in your statement, and you give the police no information that can be used against you, and the whole statement is videotaped, a suspect’s answers can still be used against him if the police (through no fault of their own) have any evidence that any of the suspect’s statements are false (even if they are really true).
8. The police have no authority to make deals in exchange for confessions, so any promise is a lie, there is nothing they can do to grant leniency, reduce charges or even help you avoid jail/prison.
9. Assume you are guilty - you may not realize that you have a defense to the commission of a crime and there may be things that reduce your guilt.
10. It is very hard to tell the same story twice in exactly the same way, even the innocent never tell the story the same way two times. If you tell it two different ways there will be gaps a prosecutor can use to convict you.