Police
Beware revealing your cellphone ownership and password to the cops
Cringe-worthy is each time that a client tells me s/he revealed his or her cellphone ownership or password to the cops. The same goes for every time that clients tell me they admitted ownership or possession of bags, rooms, or other material or places where...
You risk much to speak with police and to consent to searches
The Fourth of July brings remembrance of war and independence and more; festivities; and police trolling to make arrests for DWI and other alleged crimes, like bear feasting on salmon swimming upstream. You risk much to speak with police and to consent to searches.
Judges and jurors – Police are not immune from lying
Judges and jurors must know that police are not immune from lying. Consider Michael Picard's plight. State trooper(s) from my natal state of Connecticut in September 2015 told Picard he was unlawfully filming them. Picard insisted he had the legal right to film them while...
Asserting Your Rights with Police, Including This Memorial Day Weekend
Like bear feasting on salmon swimming upstream, police often troll for arrestees in such easy picking areas as bar neighborhoods and at such times as Memorial Day weekend. If that were not so, why are Arlington County, Virginia, police out in force on Friday and...
When Courts Protect Questionable Police Searches Through the Inevitable Discovery Doctrine
Often when I challenge police searches for lack of a search warrant or for other Constitutional infirmities, the prosecutor argues that the incriminating evidence would inevitably have been lawfully discovered by police if not first discovered in the questionable way with which the evidence in...
Police outrageous conduct — An elusive defense for criminal defendants
Do we as a society want to tolerate police engaging in oral sex and sexual intercourse with prostitutes in order to nab them, smoking crack with addicts to arrest them, and busting heads of rival gangs to arrest members of gangs to which the police...
When Prosecutors and Police Interfere with Defense Efforts to Speak with Prosecution Witnesses
Prosecutors and police are here to serve the public, and not the other way around. Too many of them forget that. Power corrupts too many people. Criminal defendants are members of the public, as are their lawyers. Prosecutors and police should tread carefully to ever...
Winning at trial with the smoking video
For defending criminal and DWI prosecutions, the defense early on needs to move to preserve and obtain video, audio and photographic evidence of and related to the incident. At first blush, the criminal defense lawyer might ask whether it is better to try to make...
Being a prosecutor does not automatically mean credibility and reliability
Being a prosecutor or police officers does not automatically mean that person is credible nor reliable. Judges, jurors, and everyone else must remember that. Criminal defendants' lives and liberty too often unjustly are crushed by an unwritten presumption that too many people give to police...
Whether police who clam up with the defense honor suspects’ decisions to clam up
In Virginia, as but a for instance, it is common for many police officers to hesitate to talk with defense lawyers about the evidence rather than referring them to the designated prosecutor to obtain information.
