If you son has not retained a competent criminal defense attorney, he needs one NOW. He needs to have a long conversation with his attorney and allow the attorney to do his talking for him.

He needs to stop talking to the police or anyone in law enforcement. Most people who have never been involved with the criminal justice system are rather naïve when it comes to the police.

The police are NOT humanitarians nor are they social workers. They will gladly talk to your son as they are collecting information to use against him in this situation. I am sure they are telling him, “We want to help,” or “We want to hear your side of the story.” That is total BS. All they want is as much evidence against your son to put him away.

They may also tell him that if he cooperates with them, they will put a good word in to the prosecutor if charges are filed. That is another lie the cops use to get people to talk. Cops are NOT---NOT---your friends in a situation such as this. They only want more evidence to put your son away, trust me.

I have been doing work in prison reform and supporting families for over two decades and I know what I am talking about. In fact, the very first thing any criminal defense attorney will tell your son is to keep his mouth shut.

I have seen many a young man talk himself into prison.

There is a Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination written into the United States Constitution for a reason. Your son needs to use it for his own protection.

If they come around to either talk to you or your son, you need to tell them that you are making no statements without your attorney present. Then shut up and don't say another word. They will probably try to bait you or your son to talk again with phrases such as, "If you are innocent, you should not be afraid to talk to us." More BS.

Anything your son says can and will be used against him. In fact, LE has a nasty habit of twisting words to use even the most innocuous statements against a defendant. Furthermore, the entire family needs to refuse to talk about this incident.

Good luck. Depending on the prosecutor, with a good attorney your son may come out of this without going to prison.

If you have any questions, message me.

rewdiazepam

And if you need a second to that take it from the guy who talked and ended up doing 10 years. My defense attorney told me if not for trying to explain what happened I would have been free. Listen to rewdiazepam. Exactly right.

Agree with both of them. My boyfriend thought he was cooperating with LE and they just took him down for telling the truth. Ugh!!!!!

Thank you all for your advice. He said he is trying to get in to see an attorney on Friday. (He has talked to one on the phone)

We have heard via 3rd party that they will most likely file charges next week. The delay is extremely strange to us; but that might have to do with all that is going on with the family. CPS has removed all children from the household, cited the owner for marijuana, and the girl is filing for emancipation. However, that whole mess is a separate issue that I am not concerned with.

When my son calls me in a few hours, I will reiterate to him to get an attorney TODAY.

Thank you all. This has been so devastating, and my husband is not dealing with this well. I think this has broken him.

It is tough to find out that the world we thought we lived and were told was a certain way isn't that at all. And...it's coming for you and your family. Pretty devastating. But you are not alone. MILLIONS have been through this. You are doing the right thing by reaching out. You may feel very, very alone but you are not as alone as you might think. Neither is your husband. I can personally say you have all been on my mind since you posted. Take one day at a time and remember to breathe.

Pointman touched on this, but these situations cause a person to “lose his or her innocence.”

Growing up, most children were taught that “the police are your friends,” “that only the worst people go to prison,” “that injustices are rare,” “that government and those who represent the government---including prosecutors----were fair

Once we grow up to be adults and are plunged into a situation such as this, we find that we have been lied to over the years.

The police are not your friends. In fact, many police---and especially those that are in the upper hierarchy of law enforcement merely tolerate citizens. Some detectives even look at the general public as an adversary. Police make arrests---period. They are not there to help anyone or be your “friend.”

Prisons are full of violent and bad guys, but they also house a lot of ordinary citizens. When I was in prison, most of the guys I served time with were indeed disreputable characters, but that has changed. Now prisons are full of non-violent, non-contact offenders and more people are headed to prison than ever before.

Injustices are rare?? LOL Yes, we were taught at one time that injustices were rare. Then a pesky technology called DNA entered the pictured. Whoa!! Now we see that a LOT of innocent men were and are in prison and that the prosecutors have been going a poor job with justice.

At one time we all believed that the police were doing a good job of keeping us safe. Then there was another pesky bit of technology called cell phones---and these phones had cameras. Now we see what is really going on behind the scenes----citizens are being assaulted, or even killed by cops, women are being stopped and sexually assaulted, and cops have been known to commit perjury and manipulate evidence to obtain a conviction.

When our core values or beliefs are under attack, we are in a state of shock. Most of the folks dealing with the criminal justice system for the first time are shell shocked to find out the truth about our criminal justice system---it is broken.

Anytime our core beliefs or values are attacked, we lose our innocence and see things for the way they really are instead of what we would like them to be---and that revelation is extremely painful.

rewdiazepam

Thank you pointman, my husband is actually going to go talk to someone about the issues he is having with this. Unfortunately, his appt is not until Monday.

Rewdiazepam, funny thing is, my son was an MP in the army. He hated it - all the hypocrisy.

I spoke to him this morning, and told him what you all said. Told him at the very least, talk to a public defender until we can afford a criminal attorney. And if they say he's not under arrest, to leave.

I also read through the case on SONRA. I guess that means you can never truly get off the list. And this is important because we're dealing with two different states, AZ & NV. We live in AZ, the girl lives in AZ, my son lives in NV. The charges will be from AZ - unless it gets even worse because he took her across state lines.

All this waiting is awful.

Frankly, the waiting and not knowing was worse than being sentenced, and being sentenced was really, really bad.

A detective called him today, and said they want him to come in Tuesday morning for an interview. Hopefully, we can find an attorney, but it will probably have to be a public defender. I doubt we will even be able to come up with bail money.

I know people who had a public defender who got a lighter sentence than I did. Often the public defenders work closely with others in the system. Its a crap shoot. Sometimes its better sometimes its worse.

Most PDs are competent defense attorneys, but the problem is that they have so many offenders and such a huge caseload they cannot spend much time on any single offender.

You said, “A detective called him today, and said they want him to come in Tuesday morning for an interview.”

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He should not talk to the detective at all. They don’t care about his side of the story; they want to put the final nail in the coffin to make it much easier to convict him on their terms. Your son should call back and tell Mr. Detective that he will not talk to him under any circumstance without his attorney present.

Many offenders believe they need to at least talk to LE, as not talking makes them look guilty. I have news for these offenders: the police already believe that he is guilty. Some offenders believe that LE will think bad of them if they don’t talk; they do not want to make the police mad. Well, they already believe he is a sex offender, so they already think he is bad.

In 99.9% of cases, talking to a detective is not beneficial. Nothing your son can say in an interview will change the detective’s mind regarding his guilt or innocence.

Nobody helps the situation by talking to LE.

Just remember, if your son did decide to speak to the police, he will be sorry. He would be playing their game, on their home field, by their rules, and using their referees. How often does anyone believe the defendant would win against those odds???

rewdiazepam

We've already instructed him NOT to speak to them without a lawyer. I'm calling one in 45 minutes to find out how much it would be to accompany my son.

The latest news: the girl called him last night and supposedly the mother is not pressing charges, but the state is going for transporting a minor across state lines. Is any of this true? Who knows? The reality is, there's a whole list of things they can charge him with, then throw him down a hole so deep we never see him again.


I want to go to the 'interview' with him, but I can't, as I have an adult mentally handicapped daughter, and she is too disruptive. I won't even be able to attend any court dates.

JunkYardJane,

You said, “We've already instructed him NOT to speak to them without a lawyer. I'm calling one in 45 minutes to find out how much it would be to accompany my son.”

If the police know he has an attorney, they won’t even talk with him. They certainly do not want an attorney down at the police station at all. If he has an attorney, most likely they will abort the interview. What they would like is to isolate your son without an attorney and abuse his naivety with the criminal justice system for their gain.

But your son is getting an attorney. This was the wisest thing he can do. Now the attorney can do the talking on behalf of your son, as your son is now protected.

You said, “The latest news: the girl called him last night and supposedly the mother is not pressing charges, but the state is going for transporting a minor across state lines.”

If the young lady refuses to testify, the court can subpoena her to appear in court. If she does not show up, they could issue a warrant for her arrest. Prosecutors hate to subpoena victims, as it just looks bad when the state has to subpoena its own victim. Or, if the young lady does not wish to testify, they could just drop the charges.

If your son has talked to the police, I hope he did not admit that he and the young lady had sex or anything that might be incriminating. If he did make an admission of guilt, they may not even need the victim’s testimony to proceed. They could, in this scenario, use his statement or admission of guilt against him.

Good luck and keep us posted.

rewdiazepam

Talked to an attny who has 28 yrs experience in the town where/if charges will be brought. Said this case could cost $10K-$15k. AZ is a ZERO tolerance state, so he is looking at 5-15 yrs. Since the police haven't interviewed him yet, said it will be $1000 to retain.

My son talked to attny in NV who referred him to one in Phoenix, and they're saying $500-$1000. Told my son I've been reading about other people's cases, and yes, if this goes to trial, it will be $15K. Told him he MUST use local attny because he knows all the players. So he's on the phone now with them.

If he doesn't retain this attny, my husband will go ballistic! FIRST thing they told me - NEVER talk to police! I just hope he listens.

I have no idea how we'll come up with the money, as we owe the IRS and I have to pay for expensive medical treatments. But we'll worry about that later.

Oh, as far as I know, he hasn't made any statements to the police. There was one phone call arranging for the girl to be brought back to AZ. And the call asking him to come down on Tuesday. BUT there was a P.I. involved, who talked to my son and met him at the state line to pick up the girl. And he admitted to him that he was involved with the girl. Most likely that was recorded. UGH

I've also been reading posts on Prison Talk. It all sounds so horrible.

rewdiazepam is on the money again. Dealing with these people he absolutely needs representation BEFORE any more talking with police.