Are You Being Investigated? Protect Your Future with the Help of an Attorney
Someone who is being investigated would likely have been visited in their homes or work place by a detective or someone from the police force. The person would have been contacted in some way, and if that ever happened, they should contact an attorney at our firm serving New York City, NY, Manhattan, and White Plains, as soon as possible to represent them whether or not the investigation lead to an arrest.
Contacting our attorney is the best way to protect against a coercive interrogation, where the police often threaten the individual and use abusive tactics to try and force them to confess. Under these tactics, even innocent people have been known to confess to crimes they didn’t commit, just to end the interrogation. The person would generally know they were being arrested because someone from the police force, a detective of some sort would have contacted them.
Would The Person Be Obligated To Meet With The Police Detective If They Were To Call?
A person suspected of a crime is never obligated to meet with the police. Often times, the police may just show up at someone’s home and business and demand that they come to the police station. Often the police later claim that this was not an arrest but was a voluntary statement. In some instances, where the person has clear evidence of their innocence, it can avoid an arrest and prosecution if the police are satisfied of their innocence. However, usually if the police are calling you or coming to your home, it doesn’t matter what you say, they want to arrest you and want you to come in and confess. The best thing to do in this circumstance is to put an attorney between you and the police. This will prevent them from interrogating you even if you are arrested. Alternatively, even if it is decided that it is beneficial to meet with them, an attorney can keep the interview from becoming abusive.
This is why it would be very important for the person to know their rights and if they were contacted by the authorities in any way, shape or form; they should probably retain counsel to at least represent them, even if the investigation did not turn out to be a case or even an arrest, because it would be better to have an attorney present to make sure the person’s rights were not violated in any way, shape or form.
Are Police Officers Allowed To Lie?
Not in Court or under oath, although we do live in the day and age where it does surely happen. Even though police officer are supposed to uphold the law, but they are also human and often do lie to fill in the holes in their evidentiary case. Even more disturbing the United States Supreme Court has permitted lying and proving false information during an interrogation to get a suspect to confess. The Courts have found lying to suspects about the evidence against them to be an appropriate investigative technique, which puts the suspect in the position of trying to explain evidence against them that doesn’t actually exist. One of the biggest lies they tell is that it will benefit the person if they just admit that they did it. Often young, or unintelligent but innocent people fall for this, which often leads to false confessions. This places an innocent person at a distinct disadvantage and is why it is best to hire a lawyer as soon as someone is arrested or contacted by the police.
Can They Use Tactics Like Telling The Person That Their Friend Had Confessed To The Crime?
Police officers use this tactic all the time and it is definitely common, and unfortunately the Courts have not attached any type of penalty to it, so they have basically given the police an implicit blessing to continue to use these tactics.
How Do Miranda Rights Come Into Play?
The person should be read their Miranda rights upon arrest, if not immediately thereafter. The Miranda rights state that, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you will say or do will be used `against you and that you have the right to a lawyer…” et cetera. Everything that we hear, that we had seen on TV, or read, is something that should be told to the person if not at arrest, then immediately thereafter because those would be the person’s rights, particularly the right to remain silent and not say anything. These would be constitutional rights that would be key to any type of criminal matter.
Would The Case Get Dismissed If The Person Was Not Read Their Miranda Rights?
This would not necessarily happen automatically, although that would be something for the person’s attorney to bring to light in court. If the person had not been read their Miranda rights, then their constitutional rights would have been violated, although proving it would be another story. It would be the person’s constitutional right to have the Miranda rights read to them, so if that did not happen, it would be a clear violation. Often people think that the case can be dismissed just because their Miranda rights were not read. That is not accurate and in any event officers will always dispute that they did not repeat the Miranda rights. The remedy is that if a person made a statement that admitted some guilty and they were arrested and not read their Miranda rights, the statement can be suppressed, however, if there is other evidence of the person’s guilty, a Miranda violation, by itself will not get a case thrown out.
For more information on Dealing With The Police And Miranda Rights, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling 914-574-8330 today.
