5 Expert Tips For Talking To The Police, and A Bonus 6th That Will Blow Your Mind!

May 30, 2017 by admin

The police want to talk to you. Maybe they’ve called you. Maybe they’ve stopped by your house. Maybe they’ve even pulled you over and arrested you for DUI. What are you going to do? Sounds like a tricky situation? Not if you take this splendid advice. Utilize these pro tips and never worry again. Tip … Read More

Ponderings on Possession, Part Two.

December 15, 2015 by admin

I’ve struggled with Windypundit’s possession post. If you’re not keeping pace, last week he brought up an interesting scenario (or two) resulting in people innocently going about their business but somehow obtaining items it’s illegal to possess. I took a stab at giving what I thought would be decent advice based on the scenarios presented (and also tried to explain the reasoning).

It wasn’t particularly easy, but many things in the world of criminal defense aren’t.

The shame of Draughn’s legal problems isn’t really the absurdity of possession crimes, though. While the hypotheticals do a great job highlighting that absurdity, the root of their difficulty is in a couple of much more pervasive aspects of the system.

Ponderings on Possession.

December 14, 2015 by admin

Mark Draughn’s “Windypundit” blog is one of my regular reads. He’s somehow found the magic ability to post both frequent and frequently interesting new thoughts. Today he posted an interesting hypothetical regarding possession of contraband:

To make it more concrete, suppose I’m walking down the street, minding my own business, when a stranger confronts me, thrusts a duffle bag into my hands, and runs away. When I open a duffle bag, I find a tightly wrapped kilo of cocaine, a pile of child pornography, and a MAC-10 submachinegun. As I look up, I notice several police officers coming down the street, obviously searching for someone or something. They haven’t noticed me yet. What should I do next?

Well, then. What do you do?

From a strictly legal standpoint

Cop Games, Due Process and the CPD “Black Site.”

February 24, 2015 by admin

“Sorry to disrupt, but I’m here for Mr. Innocent.”

One of my favorite things to do at this job is to show up at police stations. If a client is inside an interrogation room, manages to wade through the coercive Reed Technique garbage and get a call out to me, I’ll drop almost anything I’m doing and try to get there if I can. It hardly every happens, though.

Cops play all sorts of games to prevent it- despite what the Constitution says.

If I can talk to the cop directly, they’ll do everything they can to interfere. My favorite is when I ask “You’ve arrested Bob Innocent, my client…” to which the response is always, “No, sir, Mr. Innocent has not been arrested“, Because, as you know, even though a man is handcuffed and locked in a police interrogation room, he might be arrested to you or me, but that’s not “arrested” to the cops.

So, you have to say “detained”. That’s the magic cop word that means “arrested” to everybody else. If you don’t use their magic words, they play dumb.

The Legalization of Marijuana Doesn’t Solve Financial Problems. So What.

January 12, 2015 by admin

For years I’ve been saying that legalizing marijuana so we can “tax the stuff” and put the money to good use was a really bad idea. That’s not to say that marijuana should be prohibited. It shouldn’t. That is to say, however, its legalization shouldn’t be championed by people claiming the extra tax revenue would solve the world’s problems.

Well, then. What do you do?

“Sorry to disrupt, but I’m here for Mr. Innocent.”

The Lawyer People With Problems Call For Help.