The Mistakes To Avoid If You Have Been Arrested

Being arrested can be a harrowing and frightening experience. It can throw you into a state of fear, anxiety, and panic. You may not know which way to turn, which may put you further into legal jeopardy. Arrest and incarceration are designed to have such psychological effects on you. The officers that take you into custody want you to feel trapped, afraid, and hopeless. They want you to feel as though you are under their thumb.

Photo by Sunyu Kim from Pexels

There are also officers who take the opposite tack with the same goal in mind, which is your complete cooperation. These officers will speak in calm and soothing ways. They will act more like therapists than police. Their aim is to coax you into confessing to a crime that you may not have committed.

The most important thing to remember after your arrest is your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. No amount of brute intimidation or dishonest persuasion can change the fact that you need not say anything to law enforcement officials. The Fifth Amendment protects you from saying or doing anything that will incriminate yourself. You should exercise this right immediately after your arrest. You should then call a Dayton criminal defense attorney to represent you.

The Biggest Mistakes People Make After an Arrest

The arresting officer should read your rights when taking you into custody. Take them seriously. Anything you say to an officer or do in the course of an arrest can be used against you in the court of law. With that in mind, you should be aware of the biggest mistakes people make during and after an arrest. They are as follows:

  1. Admitting to a crime

A straightforward and conscious confession is not the only way to admit to a crime. You can say things that you believe are perfectly harmless, but that the people who have taken you into custody can use as proof of your guilt. The aim of police and prosecutors is to build a case that will prove your guilt based on the evidence and circumstances of the crime they have investigated. They may have no hard evidence on you, but if you make statements that connect you to a place or scene where the crime was committed, they will use that to infer your involvement.

  1. Trying to talk your way out

The pressure of the interrogation may prompt you to bear your soul to officers or to reason with them. This will get you nowhere. You may end up saying something that will allow them to connect you to a crime that you did not commit. No matter how good you may be with people, no matter how persuasive you can be with family and friends, you should resist trying out these rhetorical skills on the police.

  1. Resisting arrest

Running from police is always a bad idea. Even if you run and you are eventually captured and cleared of the accusations against you, you can still be charged with resisting arrest.

However, there are other ways that normally calm and even-tempered people can be pushed to the point of breaking the law in this way. If your arrest is the result of a domestic disturbance, the officers who come to your home are catching you on one of the worst days of your life. You may already be fuming and angry when they arrive. 

You may find their presence intrusive and unjust and believe that your arrest is uncalled for. This may prompt you to lash out against the officers. You may even be driven to commit one of the worst crimes possible: striking a police officer. It is important to keep your head in these circumstances. Do not allow yourself to lose control. Arrests for domestic disturbances tend to be temporary. Everything can usually be sorted out within a few hours. But if you resist the initial arrest, you will be charged with a much more serious crime and may end up doing a longer stint in jail.

  1. Speaking to the police without an attorney

After your arrest, the officers may play down the severity of the situation. They may even tell you that they want to get a few details from you so that they can eliminate you as a suspect, that cooperating with them will allow you to get back to your life.

This is a ploy to get you to talk, and to do so without an attorney present. It is one of the worst mistakes you can make after an arrest. The police are not looking out for your interests, they are not even necessarily after the truth; they are only interested in closing the case. The only way to preserve your rights and defend yourself against police attempts to ensnare you in a crime you had nothing to do with is to hire a Dayton criminal defense attorney.

  1. Waiting too long before hiring an attorney

If you have no prior experience dealing with law enforcement, you may find no harm in answering a few harmless questions. Once you are in the interrogation room and the conversation begins to take a turn you had not anticipated, it may be too late. That is why attorneys recommend you exercise your Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. The less you tell police officers the more flexibility you give your lawyer to defend you.

  1. Going with the public defender

Public defenders are overworked, overburdened, underpaid, and underappreciated. Their main aim is to get your case off their desk. Public defenders do not have the resources to probe the evidence that the state has against you. Prosecutors have a state-backed investigative arm—the police department. Public defenders have nothing to match it.

If you go with a public defender, they will most likely advice you to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. No one should have to confess to a crime they did not commit. That is why it is better to retain a private attorney. Many such lawyers work with defendants of limited means and figure out ways to recoup their fees and other costs.

You Are Innocent Until Proven Guilty

This simple statement is the bedrock of the American criminal justice system. Police and public prosecutors may make it seem as though you have to prove them wrong rather the other way around. Hiring a criminal defense attorney will ensure that you are treated fairly by the criminal justice system. 

Your attorney will scrutinize the evidence that has been collected against you. If it is circumstantial or based on rumors and hearsay, your lawyer will move aggressively to have the charges dismissed and you released from custody. If the prosecutor insists on pressing ahead and taking it to court, your attorney can move to have the case dismissed. If this also fails, then your lawyer will build a robust defense. To be convicted of a crime, you must be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It will be the job of your lawyer to raise that doubt in the minds of the jury during the trial.

You Still Have Rights Even If You Are Guilty

If you are arrested for a crime that you did commit, you will still need a lawyer. You have rights and interests to defend, and it will be the job of your lawyer to get you the best deal possible. It may be possible to get a substantially reduced sentence if you are a first-time offender or there were mitigating circumstances. You should discuss all such options with an experienced criminal defense lawyer.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top