Police Misconduct Legal Questions

Oh please.......seriously? This just SCREAMS of junkie with a beef ....where you magically get knocked unconscious repeatedly, and usually when the bad allegations about your conduct are alleged and garnd conspiracies that make no sense. So why were you out at ALL on your property at 2 am with a handgun and had 8 bags with drug residue on you regardless of the search consent? Unless there are independent witnesses or video of the events supporting your view AND you have no prior drug abuse/mental health history, this is a non-starter for any legal action. ... Read More

Not inherently for several reasons. First, Baker Act does not typcially involve an individual swearing out an affidavit and entry of a court order "picking them up and take them to a mental health hospital" without some form of professional assessement as to the mental capacity and threat level of the individual at issue before they are ever subjected to being institutionalized. There is likely much more to this that was not provided as LEO don't typically disregard a court order.  Moreover, you will hhave soveriegn immunity issues to overcome, and as such unless you are willing to pay the legal fees out of pocket to retain counsel on such a complicated case, there would need to be substantial injuries sustained from being "run off the road" to justify the expense and effort financially. You probably need to have a lawyer review ALL the facts BEFORE you start sending out statutory claims notices to the Sheriff Department. ... Read More

Resisting arrest by your G/F  is NOT police brutality. This has ALL of the hallmarks of a combative perp who complains the handcuffs "are too tight"and starts pulling away and resisiting without violence and like a bad epsiode of "COPS" starts complaining they are "you're hurting me!" when she refuses to comply and let them handcuff her. While there are MANY instances were police officers cross the "abuse" line - the vast majority of these issues simply involve bad people doing bad things and working the system where cries of "abuse" might catch them some slack. That there were threats to spray her in the back of the car suggests that she was acting up.  Keep in mind, that police officers expect to go home at night and have no need to nor should they be expected to tolerate perps that can't just accept arrest and deal with it in the courts while risking that the perp might have a weapon or create a distraction that jeapordizes thier lives, which can change mere seconds as there are MANY instances of police deaths due to letting thier guard down for an instance. Now, if there is a video of her doing nothing and they beat her down in cuffs? Different story. ... Read More

You shopuld make sure that your official criminal record does not have these arrests or charges. We can obtain the offical record. If there are arrest records, you should have the arrests expunged. This is the realistic path. The police have immunity for their mistakes. We do these cases every week. Ed Dimon 732-797-1600... Read More

I agree with you that this is likely an unlawful search. While this is likely an effort by law enforcement to keep burglaries and car theft down by leaving notes for owners to lock thier cars, they have lawful authority to essentially "break into" the car even withgood intentions. If a perp went around checking cars to be opened, and then look around in them, without permission they would be charged with B&E. Though the intentions maybe good on one side - this can certainly be problematic such as suppose they find murder weapon on the floor and a body in the trunk? illegal search criminal walks unless they testilie. Same for drugs or paraphanelia in the car.......... Read More

Assuming there was some impropriety - the real question is who are you referencing and the relation to the decedent and to what end? Unless you want to spend oodles of money showing the police "did somethng wrong" just to make a point, where there are no damages, this is either a non-issue or an interfamily squabble that won't likely be resolved efficiently with lawsuits. ... Read More

Not inherently as nowadays far too many people are baiting law enforcment and claiming "I did nothing" when there are other facts in play. By example, the lady on You-Tube in NC repeatedly claiming her husband "ain't" got no gun" and "its a bible"......and after the shooting revealed it was in fact a gun and that she knew it because of text messages between them. Now, assuming no charges were filed and your son was "let go" this does NOT mean that you shouldn't raise issue with this, as you certainly should, by having your son file an internal affairs complaint as a starting point. If you are willing to spend money out of pocket to investigate the issue directly such as gathering witness statements and trying to get some background on the officers involved, this can certainly be undertaken and is the foundation for establishing what actually happened (or as close as possible) and then make decisions about where to go from there. ... Read More

Is the case still pending? Where did this occur? Where was your child when this occurred?   How was your child involved?  How has this remained traumatic to a 2 year old?   Which police agency and when did this occur? I do not understand how you people were stealing from your grandmother and how you were going to make it stop.   How did you lose your job as a result of this?   You can email me at garykollinlaw.com... Read More

Just because your son was in an altercation and pepper sprayed does NOT equate to "police brutality" as you would need ALL the details of the incident including reviw of any video. 99% of the time this is result of an inmate that refuses compliance or becomes combative with corrections officers. There is ZERO tolerance for "street conduct" like bowing up or defiance in prison, and they will maintain thier authority and order and make sure everyone else gets the message also. Prison or jail  is where bad people go for doing bad things and get treated badly. Whether you agree or not, it will NOT be a summer camp experience for you son and he will need to accept the fact that as a convict or inmate he will need to adjust to the fact that his rights are far more limited than his responsibilities. ... Read More

This will all depend on the details that are "more to the story". This will involve your child's "history", the officers "history"  and the details of what accutally occurred including any video or audio recordings. Unfortunately, since you nor I were present, and you simply can't take the word of a 12 y/o for most things, the difficulty here will be separating the actual facts from accusations or even pre-disposed positions take on either or both sides. You will need to obtain ALL of the objective facts available and review them with a lawyer or otherwise hire a lawyer at some expense to assist in obtaning them. ... Read More