Five Words of Advice

Speaker 1
00;00;00;01 – 00;00;01;05
Hi, everybody. Today, I have five words of advice for you.
This is Christina Williams with Just Criminal Law.
Speaker 2
00;00;07;13 – 00;00;08;21
And this is David Mann, legal storytelling specialist.
As a storyteller, I’m very interested in words.
So what are the five words?
Speaker 1
00;00;15;04 – 00;00;17;05
Don’t talk to the police.
Speaker 2
00;00;17;05 – 00;00;17;28
Mm hmm. Okay, so we have talked about this sometimes before.
Don’t talk to the police. Ever. So. Do you have an example of what you mean this time?
Speaker 1
00;00;26;18 – 00;00;27;03
Yes. I had a client come in and hire us on an aggravated assault, and that’s a serious felony.
He was explaining to us what happened. He and his son and son’s friend were wrestling.
They ended up in a fistfight and the dad stepped in to intervene because the friend was significantly
larger than his son and his son was getting hurt.
So he pushed the boys apart and the friend ended up falling backwards
and landing on his wrist and fracturing it.
The next thing you know, law enforcement is called.
Speaker 1
00;01;05;18 – 00;01;08;00
So, so far, your client, the father is within his rights to defend his son. Right?
Speaker 1
00;01;11;23 – 00;01;12;07
Right. You’re allowed to defend others and you’re allowed to use reasonable force and really,
that’s what this case is all about.
Speaker 2
00;01;20;08 – 00;01;20;18
Okay. So he used reasonable force and now the police are there.
And this is the spot where he starts to talk, I imagine.
Speaker 1
00;01;27;11 – 00;01;27;18
Right.
Speaker 2
00;01;27;18 – 00;01;29;06
So what did he say? What happened?
Speaker 1
00;01;29;06 – 00;01;29;21
Right. He felt horrible about what happened. He was explaining, you know, just what we talked about.
And the police officer said, well, wouldn’t you agree you got a little too Western and pushed him too hard?
And my client, you know, he shrugged his shoulders and he said, yeah, I guess.
And the next thing you know, the police officer puts in his report that my client said,
I got a little too Western and pushed him too hard, when in fact, these were not my client’s words.
Speaker 2
00;02;02;22 – 00;02;05;20
So he’s now just agreed to something the policeman said,but he’s actually made it look like he committed a crime
where he was actually within his rights to defend his son. Is that what’s going on?
Speaker 1
00;02;16;23 – 00;02;17;10
Right. So, you know, my client definitely feels like he didn’t push him too hard.
He pushed him back. And it was just an accident that the kid tripped and fell right on his wrist.
It wasn’t that my client pushed him too hard, but the officer in his report said that’s what my client said.
Speaker 2
00;02;38;27 – 00;02;40;05
And now he’s facing a much bigger consequence and a much bigger problem.
Speaker 1
00;02;43;12 – 00;02;43;26
Right. He had to hire an attorney and we’ll have to, potentially go to trial
where we’ll put it before the jury and show the jury these were not his words.
They were the officer’s words.
Speaker 2
00;02;55;15 – 00;02;57;01
Okay. So if he had followed the five words of advice, ‘Don’t talk to the police,’
then none of this would have happened.
I think we’ve said before the sentence to use is, ‘Oh,I don’t want to talk about my day
and I need a lawyer present. Which would be you. And how would they get in touch with you?
Speaker 1
00;03;12;29 – 00;03;14;24
We’ll include a link in the description where they can call, text
or chat with a member of my team any time, day or night.
Speaker 1
00;03;20;07 – 00;03;21;18
Here at Just Criminal Law, we know you only get one shot at justice.
So make yours count.