Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:
Lawyer Talk podcast off the record on the air, q and a style. Steve Palmer here with another question. This one came through the website actually, lawyertalkpodcast.com. And this is from Samuel. And by the way, I'm changing the names to protect the innocent here. But anyway, my Steve, my son was contacted by the police, and they are asking him to come into the police department to discuss an incident he had with a girl he met. We are worried that the police will think he's guilty of something if he doesn't go talk to them. But we have always heard you say and other people say, don't ever talk to the police.
Steve Palmer [00:00:32]:
What should we do? Thank you and love the show. Well, great question. I this is a very common question. I get this all the time down here and upstairs in my law practice. And the first thing you should do is contact I I don't know where this is coming from, whether it's in Ohio, whether it's, some other jurisdiction, but the or some other state. The first thing you should do is contact an attorney wherever you are. Call me if it's in Ohio. I'll be happy to talk you through it because this is a dicey scenario.
Steve Palmer [00:00:57]:
There there it seems like we have this paradox. We are always told don't talk to the police, don't talk to the police, don't talk to the police. On the other hand, we have this human urge to go talk to the police and say, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm innocent. Or we have another, I think, part and parcel with that is this urge to make sure that other people know we're innocent. In other words, we think that we can influence the police, decision making process in the case, or we're worried what they're gonna think. And that's, I mean, it's not even implicit in this question. It's explicit in the question.
Steve Palmer [00:01:29]:
So how do we square this? Well, you know, I can oversimplify and I will with sort of my quippy response that I get when I often have to answer this question, or that I give when I often have to answer this question. And that is, they all the police that is already think you're guilty. Otherwise, they wouldn't be calling you. They're not, you're probably not gonna talk them off that ledge. What they're trying to do now is get you to confess to something, and, you know, the police are there to serve and protect, but not necessarily serve and protect you in this particular case at this particular time. They think they're serving and protecting whoever they believe is an alleged victim of a crime. Here, I imagine there's some sort of acquaintance scenario, And maybe she says that this guy went too far. Maybe he says no.
Steve Palmer [00:02:13]:
It was consensual. Who knows what the circumstances are? Often, the facts of these types of cases are clouded with the fuzz of alcohol and impairment. And, you know, the bottom line is when you're walking into a police department to answer questions about a topic or about an incident and you're not even really sure what the incident's all about, it's like going to take a test that you you haven't studied for. It's like going to take a test. You don't even know what the subject matter is. And I would you would almost always say, no. I'm not gonna do that. Or if you have a choice, I don't wanna take that test.
Steve Palmer [00:02:46]:
It's like the nightmare. We all wake up in the middle of the night thinking, crap. I've got this you know, the nightmare is like, I I I you're sitting in class and you've got this test and you haven't studied for it. It's the end and you haven't done anything all year. Whatever it is, everybody's had that nightmare, I think. That's what this is like. You're gonna walk in and you're gonna get ambushed by stuff that, you're not ready for. And understand this, the police will tell you when you sit down, even if it's almost all the time or almost always, even if it you show up voluntarily, the police will still read you your rights, and they're gonna tell you that anything you say can and will be used against you in court.
Steve Palmer [00:03:20]:
I know it sounds so cliche, but it is true. Let me give you an example. I had a case not that, you know, several years ago where both a guy and a girl, they hooked up and did what the young 20 do when they hook up, but they were both absolutely wasted. They were they were drunk out of their gourds, and I don't think either of them really remembered what happened, for certain. But my client went in and talked to the police. And when he went in and talked to the police, he sort of, if not actually, admitted to sexual conduct with this girl. And you would say and but said it was consensual. And you would say, well, look.
Steve Palmer [00:03:56]:
Why is that a big deal? It was consensual. Here's why it was a big deal. Because the girl didn't remember anything and my client barely remembered whether they even had sex. And and you would think, well, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is this. Had he have said nothing, had he have not made any statements at all, he wouldn't have confessed to having sexual relations with a girl in first place and the case wouldn't have ever got off the ground. Instead, we had to go win the case at trial. We had to go actually defend the case and and prove it, and we did successfully fortunately for him. But that's a good example of why you don't talk to the police because they don't tell you the angle.
Steve Palmer [00:04:28]:
They don't tell you what they're trying to get you admit to admit. They don't tell you exactly where they are coming from. And if you don't if you have any question about it or if you're concerned at all, call me. Call any lawyer. And any good criminal defense lawyer is gonna say, don't go talk to the police. They're gonna reassure you that you don't have to talk to the police. And typically, what I would do is I would pick up the phone and call the police and say, look, I represent John Doe. I understand you wanna talk to him.
Steve Palmer [00:04:54]:
What can you tell me about the case? And I learn a lot by asking this question. Instead of them asking us for information, I ask them for information. And, typically, they don't like that. Typically, they don't tell me very much. And I don't blame them for it because they're doing their job and I'm doing mine. But then I can at least tell my client, look. They're not concerned enough or they're not interested enough to tell us what they're doing. Why would we tell them anything? So if they're not gonna meet us halfway, then we're not gonna meet them at all.
Steve Palmer [00:05:22]:
So, anyway, I hope that answers your question. If you need legal help, please give me a call or look us up, Palmer Legal Defense. This is lawyer talk off the record, on the air, q and a style, at least until now.