A pragmatic approach to criminal law.
“How do you sleep at night putting in toilets for pedophiles?”
-Things nobody ever says to plumbers.
“I could never do what you do… you help drunk drivers save money on taxes so they can buy more beer.”
-Something accountants never hear.
“How does it feel knowing you sell hardware to criminals?”
-Questions the guy at Home Depot doesn’t have to answer at social gatherings.
So, you’re sitting in my office and you’re mad that you got a ticket or were arrested for DUI or are charged with murder. You’re going to fight this thing all the way. You’re mad. They never read your your rights. They never showed you the radar. If they didn’t do that, you must be “not” guilty, right?
For whatever reason, there seem to be a large number of people who, between the time they’ve last talked to the cops and the time they walk into my door, have convinced themselves they’re not guilty. That’s just fine. If you want to take the best shot at winning at trial, though, there are some things you probably said to the police that you shouldn’t have. Those things are going to make it really hard for a judge or jury to see just how not guilty you really are
Do you know how fast you were going? “Yes.” Do you know why we’re at your house with this warrant looking for a dead body? “Yes.” Do you have any idea why the neighbor says you were swimming naked in his pool at night and creeping out the entire neighborhood? “Yes.”
When the police ask those initial questions, they obviously know something. They’re not going to tell you what it is, but they’re going to try to get you to talk about it. After all, you may “know things only the killer would know.” If you answer “yes” to any of these initial questions, it’s going to start a dialogue- a dialogue that’s only going to get harder to stop.
Probably the only worse answer than “yes” would be to lie. Like, telling an officer at a traffic stop that you were going 47 when his radar says you were going 89. Lies are either going to frustrate the officer or (in a more serious case) make you look even more guilty when you’re busted.
A better thing might be to say, “I’d like to talk to a lawyer before I answer any of your questions.” Nobody seems to ever believe me on that, though. It’s sort-of a free country, I suppose. You go ahead and do what you want.
When it comes to car searches, this is almost always a follow-up to “do you have anything you shouldn’t in the car?” Of course, if that’s what happened you must have skipped the section above and either lied (hoping he’s not smart enough to know all the drugs are “hidden” in the trunk of your Chevy Vega), or answered “yes”.
So, now he wants to take a look. He’s asking you, and you don’t want to “look guilty” so you’re going to let him search.
Look, I know it seems a bit extreme, but no police officer is ever searching my car, house, body or other property with my consent. I have nothing to hide- just like you (except for those apples you’re illegally smuggling into Canada), but my stuff is nobody’s business and I don’t care how they think that makes me look. I’d be somewhat offended if they even asked.
Getting sucked into “not wanting to look guilty” is the best way to look absolutely guilty. Nothing says “this guy is probably guilty” like the weed the cop found in your pocket or the headless corpse in your crawl space.
If they ever ask to search, you can always tell them you’d like to talk to a lawyer about it first. Just saying.
You’re in some small room at the police station. The room is simple, without decor or anything but a small table and some chairs. There’s one cop- maybe two. They’ve read you your rights, and they’re asking you questions. They want to know how long you had “beef” with the guy who was just found stuffed in the back of a burned-out AMC Gremlin down by the river. “You’ve hated this guy since before that day at the Bieber concert, right?” They ask.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nq3FHm6DZ0
Wait a minute. You’re in custody. They read you your rights. They just told you that you had a right to an attorney. They told you that they’d get you one before any questioning.
Now you’e sitting there, without having talked to a lawyer, and you’re about to agree that you didn’t like some guy that they found dead?
Brilliant idea, Einstein. Especially if you didn’t kill the guy (or if you’re going to tell your lawyer you didn’t, anyway).
Just another crazy thought, but if you’re planning to contest the charges and try to avoid spending the rest of your life in prison, it might make sense to talk to a lawyer first. Probably.
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There you have it. You’re in my office. You want to fight this to the end. You’re mad that your rights have been violated. They can’t prove this case… except, of course, for the fact that you admit you knew why they were looking at you, let them search wherever they wanted and confessed after they read you your rights.
Can’t wait for your trial.
Between pondering how the courthouse bathrooms were trashed within 10 minutes of the place opening, and hoping that the cooler temps mean we’ll see less than 80 people shot in the city this weekend, I managed to come across a great post on Simple Justice. The post was Mr. Greefield’s ruminations on the pervasive practice of prosecutors disclosing evidence on the eve of trial. By “eve of trial” I mean years after they were ordered to disclose it.
If you’re unfamiliar, this happens all the time. It happens with such frequency that it’s not even surprising… to the judges. By-and-large, judges may act frustrated with the practice, but nothing ever really happens about it. Greenfield’s post, titled “When the Judge Says ‘Meh'” sums it up better than I ever could:
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You can spend years getting ready for a trial, develop a great theory, work towards gathering and presenting evidence and at the last second a prosecutor turns over something new (to you, of course, not them) that you’re neither expecting nor ready for.
To quote Mr. Greenfield, the judge says “Meh.” It never seems to matter.
In the past year, I’ve twice had cases set for trial and, within days of the trial date the prosecutor turned over police reports. Obviously that’s not new.
What is new is that in both of those cases the police reports had not even been written until a year after the offense. In one of the cases, the prosecutor talked to the cop and told him to write a report. Of course, the report was directed at defeating the motion to suppress arrest that was headed for an evidentiary hearing. Nothing shady about that, right?
In the other case, the prosecutor didn’t even know the cops had info they “hadn’t gotten around” to writing up in a report.
So, you’re about to go to trial, the prosecutor was ordered to get you any and all evidence he intends to use at trial over a year ago, all the decisions you and your client have made to this point are based on the evidence that you had been given, and now you are getting police reports that were written only because your client is contesting the charges against him. What happens now?
You’re outraged. You’re shocked. You’re asking for the “new” evidence to get barred. You’re asking for a continuance.
The judge, though? What’s the judge say? Mr. Greenfield nailed it.
Just how the system is supposed to work. If it isn’t, then why does it?
If you’re not aware, McHenry County actually holds court in two “courthouses”. There’s the main courthouse at 2200 N. Seminary (right on Route 47) in Woodstock. There’s also a “branch” court that meets on Wednesdays in the City of McHenry village board meeting room.
Most counties have these branch courts. In fact, most counties have many more of them than McHenry County. The de-centralized court systems are more convenient to the public. As they often times pop up in odd, inexpensive-to-rent places, the costs to operate can be relatively low. How much can it really cost to use village board meeting rooms (like Carpentersville and Elgin branch courts, Mchenry branch court), strip mall store fronts (there used to be a whole bunch of these in Lake County) or VFW Halls (like Downer’s Grove Field court) to rent? Continue reading “McHenry County Branch Court is Closing. Interesting.”
I’m not willing to let this press release/social media campaign issue die yet. Like I wrote about a while back, an inordinate amount of your local crime news is cut-and-pasted directly from press releases issued by police and prosecutor’s office. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. I’m not the only one who’s written about this.
Tonight, while I’m minding my own business and getting gnawed on by the dog, I took a look at the Kane County Chronicle to see if there was anything interesting I didn’t catch while at the courthouse. It doesn’t appear that there was. On the other hand, I did find this interesting article which got my little brain churning:
We’re not here to talk about lazy reporting and sloppy editing today though– certainly I’ve missed my fair share of mistakes in posts here. So, I won’t judge. On the other hand, we are here to talk about the substance of these reports.
Of course they won’t. You assume I will, though.
Not a chance.
Being a criminal defense attorney is a lot like playing in the defensive backfield in the NFL- you may have been burned for a touchdown or you may have intercepted a pass on the last play. It doesn’t matter, though. You need to get the last play out of your mind because the next play is coming up… and you might just get burned for a touchdown (or intercept a pass).
Sadly, most of the cases in criminal court get resolved through deals. Nothing can mess up an attorney’s ability to work a good deal for their client than too much ego- on either side of the case. If I won a trial today and issued a press release naming names and pointing fingers, it might be fine today. Tomorrow, though? Tomorrow I’m right back at it (probably with the same prosecutor) but for a different client. What I don’t want is this client to get a bad (or no) offer because I embarrassed the prosecutor on the last case.
That’s not to say that defense attorneys don’t beat their own drums on occasion. It is to say, however, that there’s a practical reason it’s a lot less prevalent than what we’re seeing with police and prosecutors right now.
