Police Investigations

If you or a loved one believes that you may be the target of an ongoing investigation or even if you think that the filing of criminal charges against you are imminent, it is critical that you have an attorney helping to protect your rights. Often times, in what is sometimes referred to as the pre-charge or pre-indictment stage of a criminal case, there are steps that your attorney can take that are lost forever if they are not done once an indictment is returned by the grand jury. Often times when the police are investigating you, they’re going to want to talk to you; they’re going to want to get a statement from you. When I have clients come to me who are being approached by the police and asked to make a statement, my advice to them almost one hundred percent of the time is absolutely not, do not talk to the police without a lawyer present.

Other ways that an attorney can help in the pre-indictment or the pre-charge case is by communicating with the prosecution before the case gets presented to the grand jury or gets scheduled for preliminary hearing or before the prosecution has even made a final decision as to whether they are going to file formal charges.

Remember just because the police may arrest you or write a report and submit it to the prosecuting office does not necessarily mean that the prosecution is going to follow up and file charges because without an attorney it is difficult, if not impossible, to exercise this early intervention and potentially prevent your charges from ever ending up in court in the first place. If you or a loved one thinks that you may be the target of an investigation or has been arrested but not yet charged in court, please give me a call and see what I can do to help.