When a police investigation begins, contact is made by an officer or detective via telephone or in person, in an attempt to discuss a matter with suspects or potential witnesses. It is vital to contact an experienced criminal defense attorney the first time police contact you, a friend, or a family member. Many times people wrongfully feel they can contact police on their own in an attempt to investigate or explain certain matters. Often times people are greatly hurting themselves by doing so. If you are not an experienced criminal defense attorney you are not qualified to understand whether, in fact, you are incriminating yourself and/or hurting your case. Confessions or admissions are not the only way to hurt and potentially doom your case. The police have the burden of proving every element of a crime to develop probable cause to arrest. This means they have to connect every dot in order to arrest you for a crime.
An individual that is not an experienced criminal defense attorney will not be able to tell which dot they may be connecting for the police, by merely speaking to them without an experienced criminal defense attorney. Sometimes the police may have enough information, but are missing one element, and are hoping to obtain that element by speaking to non-attorney individuals. Only an experienced criminal defense attorney should ever speak to police officers or detectives to ascertain whether there is probable cause for an arrest. On many occasions, contact by an experienced criminal defense attorney with the police officer effectively ends a police investigation, by preventing the police officer from developing probable cause to arrest. At Daniel Rosenberg, P.A., our experienced criminal defense attorneys will immediately invoke all of your constitutional rights. If the police are contacting you, a friend, or a family member, it is imperative that you contact our office immediately prior to responding to the call or visit!