Surprisingly, yes! Police can lie to you, and they frequently do. They frequently will lie to people and lead them to believe that maybe they already have some evidence or that someone else has given evidence against them. Police are allowed to lie to people in order to investigate crimes and that does not mean that evidence cannot be used against them.
The best thing to do is exercise your right to remain silent and not answer any questions. Do not put yourself in the position of telling the truth and hurting yourself or lying. There is usually no consequence for lying to the police other than maybe that makes it harder to defend your case. If there is a case later or you are in trial later. There is a consequence for lying under oath, perjury, which usually means once you have been sworn in, and false report to a police officer and some other limited situations; you need to tell the truth.
There is a crime called False Report to a police officer, if you lie about something to the police officer that leads them to believe that somebody else has committed the crime, then that can be the offense of false report to a police officer. In that situation, it is a crime to lie to the police. But just things like you get stopped for DWI, the officer ask you, “Have you been drinking”, and you say, “No, I haven’t” even though you had, that is not a crime. It might have whatever moral implications anybody ascribes to it, but that is not a crime in and of itself. If you are in trial later, you do not want to be in the position of the jury hearing that you lied to the police in the first place.
Again, that is where it is better to exercise your right to remain silent. I advise everyone who gets stopped by the police, as soon as the police start asking you any questions at all, say “I exercise my right to remain silent”. That way, you do not say anything that can be used against you, and the fact that you exercised your right to remain silent is not a circumstance that can be used against you in the court. It is not going to lead them to arrest you, give you a ticket for something that they would not have given you a ticket for in the first place.
Once the person is arrested, they are supposed to be taken without delay to a magistrate. What delay means is subject to interpretation from the courts, but usually that means as soon as practical and usually within the day. People arrested at night usually get seen by a magistrate the next morning. People arrested in the morning or early afternoon may be seen by a magistrate that same day. They are taken to the magistrate or may see a magistrate over close circuit broadcast, TV or otherwise, and a bail is set, bond is set.
The person is informed of what they are accused of and they are informed of what the bail is set at. Once the bail is set, then they have the opportunity to secure the release either by posting the full amount of the bail in cash by giving cash to the holding authority in the same county. Then that cash bond is returned to them or whoever posted it on your behalf when the case is over. There might be a small fee subtracted from that, usually about $35, or the person may hire a bondsman in Texas to write their bond. It is called a Surety Bond.
The bondsman becomes responsible for making sure that person shows up for court and can have to pay the full amount of the bond to the court if the person does not show up. In exchange for the bondsman taking on that responsibility, the person pays the bondsman whatever the bondsman requires, but it is usually 10 to 20% of the face value of the bond. If the bond is set at a $1,000 on a DWI, the person can post a $1,000 cash bond with their money; they can hire a bondsman, paying the bondsman $150 to $200 to write the bond for them to secure the release.
In Texas, there is also the option of pre-trial release agencies, government agencies in particular jurisdictions that will screen people for minor offenses or non-violent offenses. They write their bond and the person pays a small fee to the pre-trial release agency, usually about $35. Then the pre-trial release agency keeps in touch with them and informs them of their court dates and is responsible for making sure they show up for court. Of course, if anybody does not show up for court, regardless of whether it is a cash or surety bond or pretrial release, then they can be arrested for a failure to appear.
Similar Posts by The Author:
Publicaciones Similares del Autor:
