When Charged With a Crime ®

On June 14 our firm was a sponsor of the Inaugural Juneteenth Charity Golf Tournament, hosted by the San Diego Black Golfers Association. The event took place at Lomas Santa Fe Country Club in Solana Beach. LOODPS specifically sponsored a “closest to the pin” contest on the par three 4^th hole on the course. Best of all, the event raised money and awareness for two great San Diego organizations: The Blue Heart Foundation (a nonprofit organization serving underserved African American male youth between the ages of 13 and18) and Paving Great Futures (a nonprofit organization whose comprehensive work experience programs transform misguided young people into productive and empowered community leaders capable of guiding relevant and lasting changes).

Pictured to the right (from left to right) are Managing Partner David P. Shapiro, Partner Stefano L. Molea, and Associate Attorney Ally Keegan from the tee box of the 4^th hole.

There are a number of misconceptions about Miranda rights, which include your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney, among others. There is also a good deal of misinformation about when the police are required to read you your rights, as wells as your remedies if the police fail to do so. In this video, Managing Partner David P. Shapiro discusses these issues, and clears up many misconceptions. 

 

The video focuses first on when the police are required to read you your Miranda rights. The triggering event is that you are “in custody” AND “under interrogation.” Being “in custody” means that you were either (a) under arrest, or (b) not free to leave. Phone calls, video conferences and other situations, even those in person but where you have not been detained or arrested, do not require a warning, and anything you volunteer during those conversations may be used as evidence against you. The second issue, often misunderstood, is the remedy if the police violate Miranda by failing to read you your rights, and interrogate you after you have been arrested or detained. Unfortunately, automatic dismissal of the charges against you is not the norm. The remedy, rather, is the inability of the prosecution to use that statement (or those statements) against you. In some cases, this could lead to a dismissal, absent other sufficient evidence in your case, but a dismissal is by no means automatic.

 

David emphasizes, of course, that when the police use – or attempt to use – your statements against you, this presumes you have violated the cardinal rule: when being questioned by the police, keep your mouth closed, and politely decline to answer questions.